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Throughout American history editorial cartoons have exposed corruption, offered criticism of people in power, questioned and supported policies, and in general given the public another format assisting in the understanding of current events. The freedom to caricature politicians and visually comment on social and political issues has been a hallmark of the editorial cartoonist's profession. In the aftermath of the worldwide furor over Danish cartoonists' use of the Prophet Muhammad's image in early 2006, it is useful to ask whether certain images from the War on Terror have become taboo as a subject for American editorial cartoonists. For example, Mike Marland's February 8, 2002, cartoon in the Concord (New Hampshire) Monitor garnered much criticism (see Figure 1); the artist eventually apologized for using an image of President George W. Bush piloting a plane into the twin towers of "Social security," and subsequently destroyed the original artwork, although he later re-drew it and questioned why he had been so criticized (Lamb 2004, 15B6; USA Patriot Art 2006). Furthermore, while not a cartoon image, the 2004 Bush reelection campaign was heavily criticized for using images of the World Trade Center site in political ads (Malone 2004; New Bush Ads 2004). Was it simply the image of the hallowed World Trade Center that earned this enmity, or was it the context in which the images were used? "A cartoonist, political or otherwise, relies on a shorthand language of signs and symbols, the more conventional the better. Ours, however, is the age of political correctness, and the range of permissible symbols has been vastly constricted" (Lewis 2003). Did the images of the terrorist attacks become one of these constricted symbols?
The events of September 11, 2001, fundamentally changed the direction of U.S. foreign and domestic policy. The issue of terrorism, both at home and abroad, became a primary focus of the Bush administration and, as a result, became a natural subject matter for editorial cartoonists. We examine how American editorial cartoonists utilized the images of September 11 in the aftermath of the worst terrorist attack on U.S. soil. These images consist of the twin towers of the World Trade Center (WTC) and ground zero, as well as any images of the attacked Pentagon, and Flight 93 that crashed in...