Ramirez assistant Melissa P. forwards a footnote to the current controversy regarding the his editorial cartoon on the Hamas way of war that was killed as allegedly “racist” by the Washington Post:

Michael wants to emphasize that he is not at war with David Shipley, the editor of the editorial page at the Washington Post, and in fact, he’s a big fan and admirer of all that Shipley has accomplished at the Washington Post. We are at war instead with the newsroom culture that grants priority to political advocates rather than objective journalists.

On CNN, Michael told Smerconish, “I’m a big fan of David, and while we disagree on this issue, and I’m sad that they did that, I think it was under pressure from a newsroom…they think of these images and words as weapons…They try to force the paper itself to follow whatever subjective criteria they have for these guidelines, and it’s unfortunate.”

Michael is the editorial cartoonist for the Review-Journal. The simultaneous publication of his cartoon in both papers is an extraordinary collaboration, but the Review-Journal is his home paper, and they stand behind Michael 100%.

Below I have attached the graphic seen on CNN that demonstrates Michael’s style of cartooning and exaggeration for comic effect.

Yep, everyone gets the big nose and/or beady eye treatment at Michael’s drawing board.

The panel of caricatures that accompanies Melissa’s concluding point is intended to refute the charge of “racism.” I think it does so definitively, but the charge was nothing more than an obvious pretext to begin with.