The Florida Times-Union has announced a 6 percent reduction the newspaper's workforce, claiming the job of longtime cartoonist Ed Gamble. Gamble, who has drawn cartoons for the Times-Union for over 25 years, had been working part-time.
The reductions included 26 layoffs, eight coming from the newsroom. The Times-Union is owned by Augusta, Ga.-based Morris Publishing Group, which emerged from Chapter 11 bankruptcy reorganization in March.
One of Gamble's most noteworthy cartoons came back in 2007, when local black leaders in Jacksonville demanded an apology, Gamble's firing and the inclusion of an African-American on the paper’s editorial board over a cartoons that depicted a gunman wearing a “Don’t Snitch” t-shirt calling two little children a “good little ho!”
Rev. Al Sharpton defended the cartoon, stating that it's “further proof that the hip hop community and those who market them must be held accountable for the destruction they are causing in the Black community.”
