Aussie Cartoonist Sacked Over Covid Vaccine Drawing

This is not your parents’ or grandparents’ fill-in-the-blank, is becoming a well-worn refrain in the Covid cocoon that has become much of the modern, western world. Whether talking about Democrat Party-led America, the nation of Canada, the United Kingdom, or, in this case, Australia, things are objectively different now than even a mere 18 months ago.

For example, Yahoo News Australia is reporting that The Age newspaper has fired the celebrated Australian philosopher, writer, painter, poet, and cartoonist, Michael Leunig from his coveted position at the publication.

The termination follows Leunig’s posting on Instagram last month of “a controversial image comparing resistance to vaccine mandates in Victoria to the bloody Tiananmen Square massacre.”

A tank with a syringe instead of canon points it at a protester. Inset is the iconic photograph of the unidentified man in Tiananmen Square who stood in the path of several People’s Liberation Army tanks.

The 1989 photograph captured the historical significance of the Chinese Communist Party’s brutal crackdown on democracy protests, which precipitated the Tiananmen Square massacre. Reportedly, some felt the image crossed the line, while others believe it captured the unprecedented crackdowns on Australian citizens by the nation’s ostensibly democratic federal and state governments.

Rather than announce it was letting Leunig go, The Age provoked suspicions when it issued an ambiguous statement about auditioning new cartoonists on the editorial page. According to The Australian, Leunig confirmed The Age had sacked him. Leunig has been a presence in Aussie culture for half a century.

About the cartoon, Gay Alcorn, The Age’s editor, told a columnist Leunig was “out of touch with the readership.”

Even if that is the case, traditionally, editorial pages provide a canvas for people to express and discuss divergent views — free speech.

Leunig may be out of touch with The Age’s liberal readership but not so out of touch with many Australians suffering under, and protesting, some of the most Draconian mandates in the “free world.”

Leunig explained his intent in publishing the cartoon, saying:

“[M]y job is to challenge the status quo, and that has always been the job of the cartoonist.”

He continued with a reminder that people around the globe often use the Tiananmen Square image. He called it a “Charlie Chaplin-like metaphor for overwhelming force meeting the innocent, powerless individual.”

“In my view,” he also told The Australian, “it is a fair enough issue to raise in the most locked-down city [Melbourne] in the world.” This was an obvious shot at Victoria Premier Daniel Andrews’ harsh enforcement of the government’s CCP virus mandates.

Leunig added a critique of Alcorn’s interpretation of his newspaper’s readership.

After saying he’s not interested in entertaining or edifying readers inclined toward censorship, he said, “It seems that at The Age, in particular, you can’t go near the Covid story except in a way that’s supportive of the Victorian government’s handling of it. And if you’re not supportive, that’s reason enough for you to be canceled.”

Something many Americans can relate to.

The Age’s masthead declares, “Independent. Always.” Perhaps, some might wonder if they’re not as always independent as they want people to believe, preferring, instead, to ride shotgun on the Victorian government’s “woke” wagon.

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