What Exactly Is Newsworthy?

And some drawings for fun

I am trying to find a balance here of sharing what I find either interesting and/or newsworthy. It’s challenging, because I don’t want to keep screeching every time Trump does something questionable to me. In a social media post by Jane Mayer today, she wrote about Trump’s appointment of his son Donald’s (maybe) fiance, Kimberly Guilfoyle, as Ambassador to Greece. Guilfoyle was accused of sexual misconduct while she was at Fox News, forcing Murdock to pay out a multi-million dollar settlement to avoid a trial. Does that rise to newsworthy? It should, but…

Will allegations of sexual misconduct stop any of his nominations from being confirmed? It’s hard to believe that the behavior will, when it didn’t stop Trump from becoming president again. Pete Hegseth is making the rounds in the Senate, trying to convince members to confirm him as Pentagon chief. Last week, it seemed like he was losing Trump’s support, but that has changed. The NY Times reports that his candidacy as a nominee is less about him and now more about Trump’s power to control the Senate. It seems like it might be working (after Hegseth and his mother appeared on Fox and Sirius Radio). As Hegseth and his crew make the rounds in the Senate, I wonder what they are saying. It may be less about the man and his alleged repentant attitude about women and alcohol abuse, and more about what is being promised to Senators: money. Is Musk involved in this, and if so, is that legal?

With each newsletter I write here that is about politics, I consider how some of the stories could be drawn. It’s a tricky line to walk, because I don’t want my drawing to be just attacking someone, but somehow expressing a feeling or a general idea. It would be too easy to just ridicule Trump and his administration over and over again, and it could get boring (assuming I could do it). My work has been changing as our media landscape shifts- although my style remains the same.

So, Seeing Things will sometimes contain a drawing unrelated to the news. Come to think of it, that’s just what The New Yorker has been doing for 100 years!

And then live-drawing, of course! Always.

Sorry this is such a short letter today- I was in the library of the Society of Illustrators doing research for my documentary most of the afternoon, and while I wrote part of this this morning, my time was taken up by the wonderful women cartoonists from the 20’s and 30’s and I lost track of time! We are doing another shoot next week, this time with New Yorker cartoon editor Emma Allen. Should be really interesting and fun. I leave you with one of the women’s drawings, this one by Barbara Shermund from 1928. I can’t wait to share our documentary with you, called Women Laughing.

Thank you again for being here. Happy Thursday!