{"id":677,"date":"2009-06-11T04:00:00","date_gmt":"2009-06-11T11:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/anotherbb\/wp\/2009\/06\/dave_horsey_derides_his_former\/"},"modified":"2009-06-11T04:00:00","modified_gmt":"2009-06-11T11:00:00","slug":"dave_horsey_derides_his_former","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/anotherbb\/2009\/06\/dave_horsey_derides_his_former.html","title":{"rendered":"Dave Horsey derides his former (fired) PI colleagues"},"content":{"rendered":"

As a two-time Pulitzer Prize winning political cartoonist, Dave Horsey has every reason to feel good about himself, and he does. On his Hearst-sponsored Web site<\/a>, he looks as if he’s channeling John Wayne.<\/p>\n

At a party<\/a> for the new PI<\/a>, Horsey welcomed the assembled “to the revolution.” <\/p>\n

It’s no secret that the media world is being turned upside-down, and as in any revolution there is some pain and discomfort in all the changes. But there are also incredible opportunities. Something new is being born, and I think we’re giving birth to it right here.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

He was referring to the online-only PI. How can a shadow of the old be a model for the new? <\/p>\n

Unlike more than 80 percent of his former colleagues (including me), Horsey wasn’t shown the door. And unlike the few who remain (except freelance), he did not have to give up his severance to remain employed (like Eric Nalder<\/a>, directly by the Hearst Corporation). Nor did Horsey have to accept a big pay cut or lose other benefits.<\/p>\n

Makes sense that he was favored. Hearst would be crazy to let him go, as he is the best editorial cartoonist working in what used to be called mainstream media. On the other hand, did he have to go that far in praising the ghost of a newspaper? Something new is being born with a shallow, once-over-lightly approach? Not only new, but revolutionary? <\/p>\n

Thank God Hearst got rid of the dead weight, right, Dave? The people who insisted on asking pesky questions. Who needs them? The new PI can rewrite a press release and post that puppy before it has time to pee on the carpet.<\/p>\n

On Wednesday Horsey aimed another kick at the departed. <\/p>\n


\nClose to a dozen former PI staff members now have blogs and are trying to make a go of it online. (Best source here<\/a>.) In that context, how are they to feel about today’s cartoon<\/a>?<\/p>\n

The online-only PI may be making money. But considering the talent on board, it’s a terrible product. The Stranger<\/a>
\nemploys roughly the same number of people working on the editorial side, yet The Stranger is a (sometimes dubious) pleasure, while the new PI is the dead spot on a basketball floor where the ball
\nwon’t bounce. I would feel disgraced by my long association, except the
\nnew version is nothing like what died on March 17. The former PI had
\nhighs and lows; the new has mostly lows in a creepy flash package.<\/p>\n

Horsey’s
\npoint about blogging was good five years ago when Stephen Colbert made
\nit, but today there are many blogs with traffic that exceeds the PI’s
\nand many, many with quality that does. <\/p>\n

Journalism is about
\ntruth to power, not about being swell to Hearst.  At
\nthe very least, Horsey should preserve some dignity. It’s ok to take
\nthe money, but he doesn’t have to kiss the customer on the lips. <\/p>\n

(Can’t find the original Colbert bloggers-are-idiots piece, but this one’s<\/a> pretty good about social networking.)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As a two-time Pulitzer Prize winning political cartoonist, Dave Horsey has every reason to feel good about himself, and he does. On his Hearst-sponsored Web site, he looks as if he’s channeling John Wayne. At a party for the new PI, Horsey welcomed the assembled “to the revolution.” It’s no secret that the media world […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-677","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-uncategorized","7":"entry"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/anotherbb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/677","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/anotherbb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/anotherbb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/anotherbb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/anotherbb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=677"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/anotherbb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/677\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/anotherbb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=677"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/anotherbb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=677"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/anotherbb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=677"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}