That cartoon above, showing apparent Zionists (as in “Jews”) sipping Gazan blood like wine, is probably the most outrageous of political cartoonist Dwayne Booth’s works…I don’t know, maybe this one is..
All a matter of taste, I guess. The ethics question is, now what, if anything?
Booth is a lecturer at the University of Pennsylvania’s Annenberg School of Communication having joined the school as an adjunct faculty member in 2015. Political cartooning is certainly a valid courss of study. He currently teaches two classes, but since Hamas’s October 7 terror attack, his off-campus cartooning has become especially controversial.
Booth publishes political cartoons under the pen name “Mr. Fish.” One of his classes teaches students the political cartooning art by exploring “the purpose and significance of image-based communication as an unparalleled propagator of both noble and nefarious ideas,” according to Penn’s website. “Work presented will be chosen for its unique ability to demonstrate the inflammatory effect of weaponized visual jokes, uncensored commentary, and critical thinking on a society so often perplexed by artistic free expression and radicalized creative candor.”
You can see more of Booth’s anti-Israel cartoons here. As far as I can determine, there is not sufficient basis for disciplining him or ending his association with the school. Political cartooning, though I personally view it as a crude, over-rated and deceitful form of editorial, is by nature extreme in device and approach. Booth’s own political opinions and obvious anger at Israel that he expresses as “Mr. Fish” or on social media are not relevant to his value teaching the political cartooning craft, and would seem to be squarely within the margins of both academic freedom and the first Amendment, provided that his commentary in class and on campus are not directed at Jewish students.
However, if a school, like the University of Pennsylvania, decided that, at a time when there are unusual tensions around the Gaza-Israel conflict its lecturer should cool his public fervor or consider another teaching position elsewhere, that would be a fully ethically defensible position. He’s right at the line now.
He might even have crossed it.
Ethics Alarms 
It should be obvious that his opinions are protected in an academic environment but so too are those opinions that are 180 degrees opposite.
The question of crossing the line occurs when the student’s inflammatory effect of weaponized jokes is downgraded for effectively rebutting his points of argument.
What is going on with WordPress?
Chris Marschner
I’ve given up…they won.
PWS
Amazingly enough, it’s worse than you think.
You know what’s crazy? Since WP changed to this new login system, I don’t believe I have lost a single post to the “ether of spam”. My experience with it has been great, so it’s a bummer to see others having lots of trouble.
“Political cartooning, though I personally view it as a crude, over-rated and deceitful form of editorial, is by nature extreme in device and approach.”
I can’t disagree with that.
Political cartooning may be “crude, over-rated and deceitful” in practice, but I can imagine a cartoonist of superior skill being able to produce work on either or both sides of an issue. The skills required are, of course, the artistic skill, but also the appreciation of irony and analyses of political issues.
I say I can “imagine” it in the sense that John Lennon can “imagine” his utopia, but I don’t “imagine” that such a cartoonist actually exists. I doubt that Mr. Fish could make a pro-Israel cartoon with a gun to his head. The fact that the cartoons of Mr Fish and others may be abhorrent to those who hold divergent viewpoints should probably not condemn the “art form”,(if we want to call it that) to being lowbrow twaddle.
Somehow I am reminded of the work of Weird Al Yankovic, maybe textbook lowbrow. But I view Weird Al as a near genius. Consider his tune about palindromes. Anyone who can come up with the sentence “go hang a salami, I’m a lasagna hog” is near enough a genius for me. The song is called “Bob” on his album “Poodle Hat”; all the lyrics are palindromes. Check it out on You Tube. It’s worth it. The first song is “I, man, am regal…a German am I.” Pure genius wordsmithing.
Weird Al makes me happy.
jvb
I guess my response would be that political cartoons are seldom “pro-” anything, except by inevitable contrast. That may be part of Jack’s objections to them. Had I the creativity and the artistic skill, I would have no trouble criticizing Trump or Biden, Israel or Hamas, etc. It would be harder to praise any of them. If we learned nothing else from allying with Josef Stalin in WWII, it should be that the enemy of my enemy is not necessarily my friend.
THE SPAWN OF SATAN
Jesus of Nazareth asks Talmudic Jews:
Why is my language not clear to you Talmudic Jews?
It’s because you are unable to hear what I say.
YOU BELONG TO YOUR FATHER, the DEVIL, and you want to carry out YOUR FATHER’S desires.
The reason you do not hear is that YOU DO NOT BELONG TO GOD.”
He was a murderer from the beginning, not holding to the truth, for there is NO TRUTH IN HIM. When he lies, he speaks his NATIVE LANGUAGE, for he is a LIAR and THE FATHER OF LIES.
Yet because I tell the truth, you do not believe me!
Can any of you prove me guilty of sin?
If I am telling the truth, why don’t you believe me?
Whoever belongs to God hears what God says.
The reason you do not hear is that YOU DO NOT BELONG TO GOD.”
John 8:43-47