Political Cartoonists: An Evening With Plantu and Mark Fiore

Yesterday, January 28, 2006, was a rain-soaked day in San Francisco and what better way to spend a miserable, depressing day than to attend a presentation at the Alliance Française that featured the world-renowned political cartoonist Plantu of Le Monde fame (www.plantu.net) and Mark Fiore of San Francisco Chronicle? The event was recommended by my conversation class instructor, Elisabeth, and to her go my deepest thanks. (Merci Elisabeth, pour ta recommendation!)

The presentation was held in the Alliance Française auditorium in English and French and the audience was packed to overflowing with a predominantly French speakers. I was lucky enough to be near the top of the waiting list and got in! Plantu's brief summary from Alliance Française's website says: Jean Plantureux (aka Plantu) was born in Paris in 1951. In 1971, he quit school to study drawing in Brussels. A year later, Le Monde published his first drawing dealing with the Vietnam War. His editorial cartoons have graced the front page since 1985, in an effort to "acknowledge the French tradition of political cartoons." Mark Fiore, on the other hand, is well known at least in San Francisco circles.

Among other things, the cartoonists talked about their craft, the economics of it and the leitmotiv of the presentation -- why political cartoonists are important. The takeaway for me at least was that dissent to popular opinion regardless of the medium is not only required in a democratic society but vital to its existence. To illustrate, the European editorials and political cartooons tend to be more critical and incisive of the current political establishment, whereas the American cartoonists are less subversive and generally toe the line. This does not mean that the American cartoonists have fewer important things to say, but that they have to answer to the editorial staff and in turn, the corporations that control their purse strings. And what are the only things sacred to large corporations in the USA? Well, you guessed right, revenues and marketshare!

Mark Fiore explained this very eloquently to a question from an audience member regarding his stint at San Jose Mercury News, whose parent company, Knight Ridder, did not allow any cartoons too critical of the Bush Government after September 11, 2001 -- at least in the print version. This was mainly done to not invite any undue attention from the most secretive, controlling, mistrusting U.S. administration ever. This is as near as we get to Fascism. Could you imagine an American newspaper posting something like this soon after 9/11/2001? (Note: I have linked this image to Plantu's website without his permission. I shall remove it if it violates any copyrighted laws.)

American newspaper cartoonists tend to be very America-centric in their work, more likely to incite humor than critical thinking. The Europeans, on the other hand, deal with a multitude of geographies and in my opinion, more well-informed. They also tend to be more frank and do not shy away from sexual connotations. An interesting phenomenon is that there's more pointed criticism of the current government in America, albeit online. At any rate, newspaper journalism (and television journalism) is so tainted in the United States that I have almost completely stopping following either of the media and I prefer to get my news and opinions online.

Some of my favorite sites for political opinions are Get Your War On!, www.jibjab.com, Salon magazine, Common Dreams, Dailykos, Crooks and Liars, and Ruthless Reviews. Give them a shot when you have time. Cheers!