Danziger wins Honest Reporting’s Poison Pen award

It’s that time of the year when news organizations list the most notable stories – and graphics – of the year. HonestReporting.com has its own list, called the Dishonest Reporter Awards.

We were struck by the aptly named Poison Pen Award to cartoonist Jeff Danziger, whose perverse depiction of events is at right. The backstory, according to The Associated Press with JPost.com: “A small Syrian-backed terrorist group in Gaza said its activists blew up a donkey cart laden with explosives close to the border with Israel on [May 25], killing the animal but causing no human casualties.”

“Just hours after” the donkey cart exploded, according to BBC News, and “a day after militants in Gaza fired mortars into Israel … [t]he Israeli air force bombed a target in the north of Gaza and struck tunnels in the south, near the border with Egypt.”

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Besides conflating the two events, the cartoon implies that Israel is indulging in overkill and terrorizing the innocent, including the poor donkey – who, it should be remembered, was the victim of those who loaded his cart with explosives.