Drawn to Extremes or Business of Writing and Speaking

Drawn to Extremes: The Use and Abuse of Editorial Cartoons

Author: Chris Lamb

Four days after the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, Pulitzer Prize--winning cartoonist Joel Pett of the Lexington (Ky.) Herald-Leader chided President George W. Bush for having declared that America would "punish any state that harbored or trained terrorists." In one of his cartoons, Pett asked if this included the state of Florida, where the terrorists had lived and taken flying lessons. When Pett followed with other criticisms of Bush, readers canceled subscriptions, demanded that Pett be fired, and left profane messages on his voice mail. "One elderly woman spat into the phone that I 'should have been in the World Trade Center,'Pett said. "Such is the power of the cartoon when it is unleashed."

Unrestricted by journalistic standards of objectivity, editorial cartoonists wield ire and irony to reveal the naked truths about presidents, business leaders, and other public figures. Indeed, since the founding of the republic, cartoonists have both made an important contribution to and offered a critical commentary on our society.

This book demonstrates the limits of cartooning from the courtroom to the newsroom. Chris Lamb examines the reasons for the declining state of the art and the implications for all of us. Most newspapers today publish relatively generic, gag-related, syndicated cartoons. They are cheaper and generate fewer phone calls than hard-hitting cartoons. Lamb charges that they are symptomatic of the foundering newspaper industry and reflect a weakness in the newspaper's traditional watchdog function. If a newspaper wants to fulfill its function in society, maybe it should find ways to make the phone ring more -- not less!

Table of Contents:

1	You should have been in the World Trade Center!	1
2	President Bush has been reading Doonesbury and taking it much too seriously	30
3	No honest man need fear cartoons	57
4	McCarthyism	90
5	Second-class citizens of the editorial page	126
6	We certainly don't want to make people uncomfortable now, do we?	156
7	That's not a definition of libel; that's a job description	185
8	Comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable	209

New interesting textbook: Cooking Healthy with the Kids in Mind or Daily Bean

Business of Writing and Speaking: A Managerial Communication Manual

Author: Larry M Robbins

This concise MBA-level communication manual applies the rhetorical principles of writing and speaking to managerial communication. The book offers guidance for specific tasks of writing (letter,memos,reports,proposals,and resumes) and of speaking (meetings,group presentations,questions and answer sessions,and interviewing). Both end-of-chapter exercises and an end-of book exercise workshop provide ample practice in the common forms of communication. This updated,revised edition reflects use of new technology in the research process and has increased emphasis on meetings.