Last Saturday the Guardian apologised for and removed from its website a cartoon about the resignation of the BBC’s chairman, Richard Sharp, that had been published in that day’s newspaper and online from the night before. Among the 80 readers who – at the time of writing – have directly complained about the cartoon (more have remonstrated via the letters desk, as have commentators in other media), one echoed the remarks of many when she said the image was “laden with antisemitic tropes that recall the darkest days of European antisemitism”.
Martin Rowson, who drew the cartoon, wrote in a personal apology posted on his own website how he had set out to frame Sharp’s departure – which followed a report into his undeclared connection to an £800,000 loan made to Boris Johnson – in terms of Sharp being yet another person “brought low” by the former prime minister; to depict “Johnson’s blithe toxicity by association”.
