Michael Ramirez

Michael Ramirez
Born	Michael Patrick Ramirez May 11, 1961 (1961-05-11) (age 50) Tokyo, Japan
Nationality	American Japanese
Area(s)	cartoonist
Notable works	Editorial cartoons
Awards	full list

Michael Patrick Ramirez (born May 11, 1961) is a two-time American Pulitzer Prize-winning editorial cartoonist. His cartoons typically present conservative viewpoints.

Ramirez was born in Tokyo, Japan. He graduated from the University of California, Irvine, in 1984 with a bachelors degree. He has worked for The Commercial Appeal of Memphis for seven years and then for the Los Angeles Times. In 1994, he was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Editorial Cartooning. He again won the Pulitzer for editorial cartooning in 2008. He is a three-time winner of the Society of Professional Journalists' Sigma Delta Chi Award for excellence in journalism in 1995, 1997 and 2007. He has also been awarded the 1996 Mencken Award for Best Editorial Cartoon. He is a regular contributor to USA Today and The Weekly Standard, and his work has a subscription/distribution of over five hundred and fifty newspapers and magazines through Creators Syndicate. He is also the co-editor of the Investor's Business Daily editorial page.

Ramirez initially planned to study medicine in college and considered journalism a hobby. He became seriously interested in that field when his first cartoon for the college newspaper, lampooning candidates for student office, had the student assembly demanding an apology.

Ramirez was a regular guest on The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer. He has been on CNN, CNN International, Fox News Sunday, BBC Television, BBC Radio, NPR, the Michael Reagan Show and is a highly acclaimed international speaker.^{[citation needed][original research?]} His cartoons have been featured on CNN, Fox News, The O'Reilly Factor, and The Rush Limbaugh Show. His work has been published in such publications as The New York Times, The Washington Post, The New York Post, Time Magazine, National Review and US News and World Report.

His work can be seen daily in the pages of Investor's Business Daily on the Issues and Insights page and online at IBDeditorials.com/cartoons.^[1]

He is the author of a new book, “Everyone Has the Right to My Opinion."

Cartoon controversies

In October 2000, the Los Angeles Times published a Ramirez cartoon that appeared to depict a Jewish man worshiping the word "Hate" embedded into the Western Wall. According to the Times Associate Editor Narda Zacchino ombudsman, this provoked an "unprecedented" negative reaction.

Ramirez denied singling out Jews, claiming that the wall in the cartoon was not meant to suggest the Western Wall, and that while there was a Jew worshiping at the hate wall, there was also a figure bowing before it wearing a kaffiyeh (though it is difficult to see).^[2][3]

In September 2007, the Columbus Dispatch published a Ramirez cartoon depicting Iran as a sewer (labeled with the word "extremism"), with cockroaches spreading from it over Iraq, Afghanistan, and other countries of the middle east. Some commenters compared this with characterisations both of Jews in pre-Holocaust Germany and Rwandan Tutsis before the 1994 genocide.^[4]

"If I don't get at least one phone call a day that says I'm a moron, I'm not doing my job," Ramirez says of his penchant for sparking controversy with his cartoons.

"An editorial cartoon is not just a funny picture," says Ramirez. "It is a powerful instrument of journalism, sometimes sharp and refined, its message cutting quickly to the point, and other times, blunt and overpowering, seizing the readers’ attention with its dark imagery."

Cartoon discontinued

On November 12, 2005, the Los Angeles Times announced that his cartoon would be discontinued at the end of the year. Ramirez expressed disappointment about the discontinuation. Ramirez joined Investor's Business Daily as a senior editor/editorial cartoonist, and his cartoon is syndicated in more than 400 newspapers by Creators Syndicate. He was syndicated by Copley News Service since 1988 which was then purchased by Creators Syndicate in 2008.

Awards

• 1994: Pulitzer Prize for Editorial Cartooning
• 1995: Sigma Delta Chi Award for Editorial Cartooning
• 1996: H.L. Mencken Award for Editorial Cartooning
• 1997: UCI Medal, University of California, Irvine
• 1997: Sigma Delta Chi Award for Editorial Cartooning
• 2004: Lincoln Fellow, Claremont Institute
• 2005: Scripps Howard Foundation, National Journalism Award for Editorial Cartooning
• 2007: Sigma Delta Chi Award for Editorial Cartooning
• 2007: National Cartoonist Society Division Award for Editorial Cartooning
• 2008: Pulitzer Prize for Editorial Cartooning
• 2008: Fischetti Award for Editorial Cartooning
• Honorary Member of Pi Sigma Alpha, National Political Honor Society

References

1. ^ http://www.investors.com/NewsAndAnalysis/IBDEditorials.aspx
2. ^ http://www.snopes.com/inboxer/outrage/hate.htm
3. ^ http://www.adl.org/rumors/latimes_cartoon.asp
4. ^ "US cartoon no joke to Iranians". Asia Times Online. 2007-09-20. http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/II20Ak02.html. Retrieved 2007-09-25. 

External links

• Michael Ramirez at Investor's Business Daily

Persondata
Name	Ramirez, Michael
Alternative names
Short description
Date of birth	May 11, 1961
Place of birth	Tokyo, Japan
Date of death
Place of death