Jack Ohman has been a political cartoonist for 48 years; he got his start at the Minnesota Daily when he was still a college student, and at 19 he became the youngest-ever syndicated cartoonist in the United States. He has worked at major papers across the US, including The Detroit Free Press, The Oregonian and, The Sacramento Bee, where in 2016 he won the Pulitzer Prize for Editorial Cartooning. Since 2023 he has been the editorial cartoonist and a political columnist for The San Francisco Chronicle, and also publishes at his Substack, Jack Ohman's You Betcha. He joined us to talk about his history in the newspaper biz, the state of editorial cartooning, the death of Scott Adams, and much, much more. Plus - Who Had the Worst Week in California Politics.
Jack Ohman has been a political cartoonist for 48 years; he got his start at the Minnesota Daily when he was still a college student, and at 19 he became the youngest-ever syndicated cartoonist in the United States. He has worked at major papers across the US, including The Detroit Free Press, The Oregonian and The Sacramento Bee, where in 2016 he won the Pulitzer Prize for Editorial Cartooning. Since 2023 he has been the editorial cartoonist and a political columnist for The San Francisco Chronicle, and also publishes at his Substack, Jack Ohman's You Betcha.
He joined us to talk about his history in the news biz, the state of editorial cartooning, the death of Scott Adams, and much, much more. Plus - Who Had the Worst Week in California Politics.
1:00 Sports betting update
3:27 The Prop. 50 court decision
5:41 Clarissa Laguardia podcast
6:47 Jack Ohman
7:46 Origin story
9:23 Collapse of the afternoon papers
11:53 Substack
14:04 Political cartooning vs. comic strips
15:30 "I never really wanted to be a cartoonist, I wanted to be governor of Minnesota"
16:00 Kate Brown
18:27 Youngest syndicated cartoonist
23:46 Are we in a new Yellow Journalism era?
26:58 "In some ways we're fighting the same battles of the Civil War"
33:27 The Death of Scott Adams
36: 39 Bacchi Decision
40:21 Where is cartooning right now?
48:46 Thomas Nast
49:43 #WWCA
Want to support the Capitol Weekly Podcast? Make your tax deductible donation here: capitolweekly.net/donations/
Capitol Weekly Podcast theme is "Pickin' My Way" by Eddie Lang
"#WorstWeekCA" Beat provided by freebeats.io