Specifically, Tom Spurgeon asked Ted Rall to come up with five examples of newspaper-cartoonist relationships that work.
Rall: "I could point to scores! The problem is that no cartoonist and no newspaper wants to discuss the details of their businesses, including the well-known fact within the business that editorial cartoons routinely top out reader surveys conducted by papers, in a public forum."
Spurgeon's response: "I still have a hard time believing that the only options here are very general exhortation or specific, funded research results...it's my hope that we could hear from your organization in slightly less broad strokes than implying everyone who disagrees with you is kind of a moron when say, Tom Toles is an asset worth keeping."
Earlier: Tom Spurgeon doubts that editorials written by Rall will do anything to change the minds of editors who have decided to save money and use syndicated material to bridge the profitability gap that many newspapers face.
