Cartoon that got Rick Friday fired
U.S. cartoonist Rick Friday — who was fired in April after publishing a cartoon criticizing his paper’s advertisers — has been rehired by Iowa-based Farm News. On July 2, Friday wrote on his Facebook page: “After 60 days, Farm News has offered me an agreement to return, as with an apology. Both of which I have accepted and returned to submitting cartoons . . . By returning to Farm News this gives a strong statement to all who tried to censor the truth and that the voices of many people were heard. I encourage a correlation of rural and urban fellowship to better understand each other’s world, we owe this partnership to our future. I respect opinions and diversity and understand that in order to survive we each must make the best choices environmentally and economically. Most importantly we must be nice to one another . . . Thank you, everyone, for sharing your voice and support and I look forward to continuing the push to preserve our family farms.”
The cartoon that got Friday fired compared farmers’ earnings to CEO salaries at seed companies Monsanto and DuPont and tractor maker John Deere. At the time of his termination, Friday wrote: “Apparently a large company affiliated with one of the corporations mentioned in the cartoon was insulted and cancelled their advertisement with the paper, thus, resulting in the reprimand of my editor and cancellation of It’s Friday cartoons after 21 years of service and over 1090 published cartoons to over 24,000 households per week in 33 counties of Iowa. I did my research and only submitted the facts in my cartoon.”
Friday’s termination was reported by The New York Times and the Columbia Journalism Review, and he received notes of support from “Spain, Canada, Mexico, Netherlands, Switzerland, Hong Kong, Japan, Russia, Ukraine, Africa, Argentine, Poland and Holland.”
In an interview with CRNI after he was rehired, Friday said, “They [Farm News] did not give a reason they wanted me back, only a sincere apology and that it was a mistake. The apology did come from the publisher. No apologies from anyone else. . . There are absolutely no guidelines in the contract as to [cartoon] subjects or themes.”
Friday’s advice to other cartoonists: “Once you get your work past the editor you have it in the bag. Document everything and push to the limits.”