Times disciplines editor, cancels cartoon contract

The New York Times said Wednesday that the editor who chose to publish an anti-Semitic cartoon in its international edition would be disciplined and that it had canceled the contract with the syndicate that provided the cartoon, after the newspaper drew widespread condemnation for its use of the drawing.

The Times will also update its bias training to include a focus on antiSemitism, according to a note sent to employees by A.G. Sulzberger, the newspaper’s publisher. In addition, the paper will no longer run syndicated cartoons created by artists who have no direct ties to the Times.

Published April 25 in the opinion page of the Times’ international edition, the cartoon was quickly condemned for its use of antiSemitic imagery.

The illustration portrayed President Donald Trump as a blind man wearing a skullcap being led by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel, drawn as a dog with a Star of David hanging from his collar. Describing the cartoon as “offensive,” Sulzberger said it had been “downloaded and published by a single production editor working without adequate oversight.” He said that the newspaper would also change its processes to ensure the situation couldn’t be repeated.

Sulzberger’s note followed an apology from the opinion section on Sunday and a separate editors’ note published in the international edition on Monday. On Tuesday, an editorial called the cartoon “appalling” and its appearance evidence of the danger of antiSemitism and of “numbness to its creep.”