Will tech platforms or craven publishers kill satire?
😬A window into what I'm investigating during my Stanford fellowship...
This morning brings news of my friend and colleague Ann Telnaes quitting The Washington Post after her cartoon was killed.
You can read her post and see her great, straightforward cartoon here:
Sadly, this ties in perfectly/horribly to what’s been happening for years.
Thanks to Donald Trump, it’s now more out in the open.
On one side, you have tech execs visiting Mar-a-Lago and kissing Trump’s ring.
Telnaes’ cartoon isn’t slanderous, far-fetched or even very different from reality. (Okay, Mickey Mouse is a cartoon character and did not actually bow down to Trump in real life.)
On the other side are algorithms, filters and deep learning-based “fake news” detectors.
No matter how you slice it, journalism, satire and political content is getting squeezed.
You can read my post about this dire problem here.
The days of mass media outlets supporting strong opinions and satire appear to be over.
Tech platforms aren’t the open and creative utopias artists and journalists once imagined.
That said, there are definitely bright spots like crowdfunding communities on Substack and Patreon that help keep this work alive (hint, hint).
But what happens when crowdfunding outlets get uncomfortable with news and politics like happened at Facebook and others?
I’m tired of feeling like I’m always one algorithm click away from disappearing.
That’s really the underlying focus of my John S. Knight Fellowship year at Stanford.
In the meantime, thank you so much for your support of my work and other voices striving to be heard!
Happy New Year! (I hope.)
-Mark
As an illustrator and cartoonist, I agree that it's up to we artists to fight back against the crushing tech broligarchy. As the web and search engines get further co-opted by AI driven "oppression by search limitation" similar to that of China, it's important to get our work into as many independent and real world publishing/self-publishing venues as we can find.
Another bright spot to add to your list are publications like McSweeney's or The American Bystander (theamericanbystander.substack.com). Bystander publisher and editor Mike Gerber has been busting his hump to make sure his magazine remains steadfast in its mission to stay strong as a voice of satire and humor that can pierce through autocratic propaganda. Supporting magazines like these guarantees that free speech survives.
Why is everyone afraid of a orange blowhard moron?