King Canute and the cause of the cartoonist

When professors start writing books about the demise of editorial cartooning you have to guess that there is a trend developing. The sacking of Malcolm Evans in New Zealand demonstrates that the phenomenon of editorial timidity is not limited to the US.
Globalisation means that a paper printed on this side of the globe is just as likely to face the same constraints as one owned by a multi-national located on the other side. Eventually the perils of homogenising the world, transforming it from a place vast of diversity to a choice between McDonalds and Hungry Jacks, will touch us all.
Pleading with editors to forsake the realities of shrinking budgets and receeding advertising revenue in favour of the high minded principles of free expression and editorial independance is a bit like King Canute and his attempt to command the tides to stay their advance. The difference being of course that Canute played out the facade to teach his people that no one, not even a king is all powerful.
Perhaps however, the reverse can be realised. If enough cartoonists stand their ground, as John Sherffius of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch did, over a single cartoon, when he resigned, or Malcolm Evans did when he continued to follow his own editorial conscience, despite the obvious danger of being sacked, then the reading public will realise that even if editorial cartoonists are not kings, they do have high principles in mind.

Here's an article (not the professor one) on the resignation of John Sherffius...