This year’s Herblock Prize winner says ‘Trump talks a big game,’ but Obama’s no beacon of freedom
Mark Fiore is a rare breed even within an endangered species. He is the modern professional political cartoonist who has an established platform and dedicated following — the editorial artist who bows to the past century’s masters while helping carve the future of the art.
Fiore, who won the 2016 Herblock Prize Award, says his pioneering career as a political animator was sparked by both personality and professional opportunity. The Bay Areabased cartoonist — who in 2010 became the first Pulitzer Prize recipient to win for an allanimation portfolio — describes himself as “someone with an independent streak” who was fueled by “the fact that what I was doing had never been really done before.”
“I’m sure if someone had offered me a staff job creating political animation, I would have jumped at the chance,” Fiore told The Washington Post on Tuesday, hours before he was to give his Herblock speech at the Library of Congress’ Jefferson Building. “With something new and different like political animation, having independence created space to push the envelope.”
We caught up with Fiore to talk press freedoms, presumptive nominees, and how a publisher’s edict to go easier on a president led to Fiore’s departure from daily print journalism.
Q: From the Muhammad Cartoon Crisis to Charlie Hebdo, you have been vocal as a strong free-speech proponent. Would you call yourself
a free-speech absolutist or, if not, where do you draw your personal lines?
A: Yes, I do still consider myself a free-speech absolutist. If a cartoonist, author or just general idiot, wants to draw or speak ill of Muhammad, Jesus, Buddha or Senator Nutballs, go for it. There’s a certain cartoonist who seems to be trying to make a career out of drawing Muhammad and selling his Muhammad drawings in online auctions — it’s amazing how silly, sad and desperate the cartoonist looks. A shocking taboo has just become an online sales tool. The one place I agree with some of the religious zealots in Iran is when it comes to cartoon contests. If they want to hold a Holocaust-denying cartoon contest, go for it! Let’s have a war with cartoons instead of bullets.
Personally, of course, I always strive to have my cartoons say something with a punch, but at the same time respect other cultures, races and religions. Just because you can be a loud-mouthed idiot, doesn’t mean you have to be one.
Q: Related to that, we know that much of the world has no true free press. Meanwhile, (Donald) Trump talks about pushing for more restrictive libel laws if elected. Within this environment (for journalists), do you ever feel
as if your own liberties as a cartoonist are constrained?
A: We are incredibly fortunate to have a free press. We do have problems, though — mostly related to economic pressures that undermine the health of journalism. Let’s hope we’re still able to critique a real-estate developer/reality-television star if he becomes president. Even though Trump talks a big game, the Obama administration hasn’t exactly been a shining torch of freedom when it comes to journalism in the United States.
Q: Herblock was famously fearless in skewering McCarthy and Nixon, to name just two politicians he satirized with high conviction and personal sense of moral purpose. Are there any targets, be it individuals or institutions or organizations, that you take a special pride in having skewered, perhaps even garnering a reaction or
affecting a change?
A: I’m particularly proud of apparently “injuring” Chevron — although my lucite-award statue of a weeping Chevron logo has not yet come in the mail. It seems that in this day and age, however, politicians in the United States have gotten smart enough to realize that any time they complain or sue a cartoonist, it just brings more attention to the cartoon they want to bury. My goal is to shape the conversation and speak more to the people than to the politicians.
Q: Herblock had a rare platform in mid-century Washington. Do you aim to move the needle of influence through your work? Or is visual satire simply too multi-channeled now to have that sort of central impact?
A: It is very difficult to break through the noise of punditry and media in this day and age. There are so many choices out there, the audience is incredibly fragmented. I think the most important thing is to create great work and get it in front of as many people as possible. I don’t think a president will make a surprise visit to any of my gallery openings the way LBJ did with Herblock, but I do feel that I can move the needle of discourse. My favorite emails and comments begin, “I usually hate your work but ...”
Through the miracle/curse of the Internet, it’s as if we all live in one massively newssaturated town and are finding our particular audience. Even though I’ve been doing this for a while, I still feel that I’ve only begun to scratch the surface of what is possible with my cartoons.