Spectator is right on Steve Bell’s sacking: the future of political cartooning is at stake
I don’t have much in common with the right-wing Spectator magazine or its Editor Fraser Nelson. I think we once reached a concurrence on the importance of beards (he doesn’t have one). That doesn’t mean to say though that I don’t have a look at what it publishes from time to time.
Nelson has published a piece on the decision of the Guardian to sack cartoonist Steve Bell.
Its useful in the sense that it makes it clear why the Guardian, or someone employed by the paper, misrepresented the cartoon that led to Bell’s sacking.
It also makes two wider points. Firstly that in the age of social media, pile ons by often (but not always) reactionary groups often lead to risk adverse policies being adopted by papers. How this can be dealt with remains an open question, although in this case sacking Bell was wrong the answer.
Nelson also makes the point that Bell’s sacking places the whole art of political cartooning at risk. The tradition is often acerbic and may offend to make sharply political points. Its part of a democratic political culture now under threat
Spectator article
Summary of Steve Bell’s cartooning
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