Start laughing, this is serious

John Spooner at his recent book launch.

One of the sad milestones in Fairfax’s decline came when cartoonist and illustrator John Spooner decamped, quite possibly in disgust at the heedless delight with which a once left-but-sane news organisation was destroying itself. Today he pops up in the Media section of The Australian to share his thoughts on the mobbing and mugging of the Herald Sun‘s Mark Knight, these amongst them:

When the social media gets agitated, professional journalism feels the uneasy temptation to jump to the vanguard of the mob. To assert authority. With honourable exceptions, a lot of erstwhile ­respected journalism is now stuck in the scary crush of that peak hour carriage. No good sticking your fingers in your ears. Journalism just has to listen and learn to survive without shouting.

Every mainstream journalist has to be careful so as not to ­“offend” the feelings of a yet to be identified “victim”. Even the most well meaning throwaway line can be instantly turned into a simple noose.

This brings me to the cartoonist’s dilemma. I’m thinking of the spectacular injury and troubles inflicted on cartoonist Bill Leak and, most recently, the Herald Sun’s Mark Knight. Two of the most gifted and admirable people I’ve ever met. Bill’s life was ruined by a combination of murderous Islamist threat and insidious defamation by the Australian Human Rights Commission. Now another crowd of cowards is going after Mark.

Spooner (pictured above) spoke recently about his art and other things while launching his new book, What the Hell Was He Thinking, touching on both The Age‘s current attempts at cartooning and, far worse than that, the betrayal of editorial principles once held dear. A video of that address can be found here.

His Australian piece can be read in full (if you subscribe) at this link or via the one below.

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