Drawn to extremes : the use and abuse of editorial cartoons / Chris Lamb.

Includes bibliographical references (pages 239-263) and index.

1. You should have been in the World Trade Center! -- 2. President Bush has been reading Doonesbury and taking it much too seriously -- 3. No honest man need fear cartoons -- 4. McCarthyism -- 5. Second-class citizens of the editorial page -- 6. We certainly don't want to make people uncomfortable now, do we? -- 7. That's not a definition of libel; that's a job description -- 8. Comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable.

"Unrestricted by journalistic standards of objectivity, editorial cartoonists wield ire and irony to reveal the naked truths about presidents, business leaders, and other public figures. Indeed, since the founding of the republic, cartoonists have both made an important contribution to and offered a critical commentary on our society." "This book demonstrates the limits of cartooning from the courtroom to the newsroom. Chris Lamb examines the reasons for the declining state of the art and the implications for all of us. Most newspapers today publish relatively generic, gag-related, syndicated cartoons. They are cheaper and generate fewer phone calls than hard-hitting cartoons. Lamb charges that they are symptomatic of the foundering newspaper industry and reflect a weakness in the newspaper's traditional watchdog function. If a newspaper wants to fulfill its function in society, maybe it should find ways to make the phone ring more - not less!"--BOOK JACKET.

Machine converted from AACR2 source record.