Cartoonist Fired From Farm News for Pro-Farmer Cartoon

Rick Friday was not immediately available on Wednesday to explain why he was fired after two decades working as a cartoonist for Farm News. That is because he was feeding the cows on his Iowa farm, as he does early every morning before most people have gone to work. But the cartoon that got him into trouble last week had already spoken for him, circulating online well beyond the audience of the thousands of Farm News readers of his weekly “It’s Friday” column, which has been published since 1995.

The cartoon shows two farmers, in overalls and skewed baseball caps, chatting at a fence.

“I wish there was more profit in farming,” one farmer says.

“There is,” the other replies. “In year 2015 the C.E.O.s of Monsanto, DuPont Pioneer and John Deere combined made more money than 2,129 Iowa farmers.”

After the cartoon was published last Friday, Mr. Friday said he was told in an email from an editor the next day that the cartoon would be his last for Farm News because a seed company had withdrawn its advertising in protest.

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/05/06/business/media/cartoonist-fired-from-farm-news.html?_r=0

Click to expand...

Ahlevah said:

I guess he hit just a little too close to home for somebody in Big Agriculture. Should we give a **** about this? After all, it's just a newspaper for farmers in Iowa.

Click to expand...

joG said:

Actually, that was quite a cute cartoon.

Click to expand...

ARealConservative said:

he bit the hand that feeds him.

newspapers make their money from advertising

Click to expand...

Orly? said:

Sad state of affairs our country is in these days..

Click to expand...

Ahlevah said:

Actually, the farmers in Iowa who buy issues of Farm News feed the owners, because if there were no circulation there'd be no interest in advertising in it. And the CEOs of Deere, Monsanto, DuPont Pioneer, CF Industries, Cargill, Archer Daniels Midland, etc. all work for the farmers who buy their seeds, equipment, and fertilizer.

Click to expand...

ARealConservative said:

actually, the farmers in a large part of Iowa get it for free. it is commercial pretending to be a newspaper.

Subscriptions | Farm News

Click to expand...

Ahlevah said:

Sort of like Google then, which rakes in tens of billions of dollars in advertising from people who pay nothing but click. Same principle: The advertisers are paying for eyeballs. No eyeballs, no buyers, hence no ad revenue.

Click to expand...