Whistle-Blower

I am a whistle-blower.

My book blows the whistle on the censorship of Op-Ed art by The New York Times.  

To accompany a text on the meteorological anomaly of a blizzard that followed a mild winter. Cathy Hull drew an ice-covered thermometer. Although it registers 96 degrees, it’s surrounded by falling snow. Seconds before the page closed, the drawing was killed. The editorial verdict? “It looks like an ejaculation.”

For Valentine’s Day, British artist Ronald Searle drew a finicky, trapeze-walking, female feline who is passing up proper suitors in favor of a raggedy rat. How could this be considered politically incorrect? “It implies,” my editor said, “that ladies love outlaws.”

When an Op-Ed essay proposed that all internet content be free, Nancy Stahl created a perfect digital image: a locked computer window is displaying a light bulb that’s emblazoned with a copyright sign. My editor said, in complete seriousness, “We can’t publish a bare breast and a nipple!”

To illustrate a text that laced into Henry Kissinger as a war criminal, David Levine drew a masterful back view of Kissinger tattooed with his war crimes. The problem was not the nudity, my editor claimed.  

“It’s the excessive midsection flesh.”