Editor & Publisher picked up my open letter to the Pulitzer Board. Here’s how they quote me:
The self-syndicated Tomorrow noted that “the only Pulitzer ever awarded to a cartoonist from the alternative press was given to Jules Feiffer in 1986. The only other remotely non-traditional cartoonists to have been recognized within my lifetime are Garry Trudeau in 1975 and Berke Breathed in 1987. And the last time, to my knowledge, that an alternative editorial cartoonist of any kind was even considered was when Ted Rall made the short list a full ten years ago.”
Here’s what I actually wrote:
The only Pulitzer ever awarded to a cartoonist from the alternative press was given to Jules Feiffer in 1986. If Jules’ Pulitzer were a person, it would be old enough to vote. It would be a year away from drinking legally in every state in the union.
The only other remotely non-traditional (i.e. non-daily-editorial-page) cartoonists to have been recognized within my lifetime are Garry Trudeau in 1975 and Berke Breathed in 1987. And the last time, to my knowledge, that an alternative editorial cartoonist of any kind was even considered was when Ted Rall made the short list a full ten years ago.
It’s a small thing, but when you condense someone’s words, isn’t a standard journalistic practice to indicate this in some way, with ellipses or something?
…by the way, now that a truncated version of this essay is getting wider circulation, I want to reiterate the postscript:
To those whose immediate response is “ha! he certainly does not deserve a Pulitzer,†let me just reply in advance: you are probably correct. But I would maintain that the entire field of alternative cartoonists do not deserve to be similarly dismissed out of hand.