Media chieftans are reluctant to publish hard hitting commentary when it comes to the current White House occupant. Better to kow tow rather than speak uncomfortable truths to power.
CNN Business 6.30.2019
New York (CNN)A Canadian cartoonist’s illustration of President Donald Trump playing golf over the bodies of two drowned migrants went viral Wednesday. Two days later, Michael de Adder said on Twitter that he had been let go by a publishing company in New Brunswick, Canada.
De Adder’s illustration depicted Trump asking the two dead migrants, “Do you mind if I play through?”
The cartoon refers to the image of Oscar Alberto Martínez and his 23-month-old daughter, Angie Valeria, lying face down in water surrounded by reeds. The two drowned while attempting to cross the Rio Grande River to get into the United States.
“The highs and lows of cartooning. Today I was just let go from all newspapers in New Brunswick,” De Adder tweeted. He later clarified that he had technically been under contract to work for Brunswick News Inc., and wasn’t an employee who could be fired.
Brunswick News Inc. responded in a statement on Sunday that “it is entirely incorrect to suggest” that it canceled a freelance contract with de Adder over the Trump cartoon.
“This is a false narrative which has emerged carelessly and recklessly on social media,” the publishing company wrote. It said that de Adder never offered the Trump cartoon to the company and had already decided to “bring back” another cartoonist it said was popular with readers. “[N]egotiations had been ongoing for weeks,” it stated.
De Adder tweeted that he would bounce back from losing the job and that he just had to “recoup a percentage of my weekly income.” De Adder has a book he said will be released in September.
He did not respond to a request for further comment from CNN Business.
