Stephen Reed Benson (born January 2, 1954), is a
Pulitzer Prize-winning
editorial cartoon
A political cartoon, a form of editorial cartoon, is a cartoon graphic with caricatures of public figures, expressing the artist's opinion. An artist who writes and draws such images is known as an editorial cartoonist. They typically combine a ...
ist.
Biography
Stephen Benson was born on January 2, 1954, in
Sacramento
)
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, mapsize = 250x200px
, map_caption = Location within Sacramento ...
,
California
California is a state in the Western United States, located along the Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the most populous U.S. state and the 3rd largest by area. It is also the m ...
. As the grandson of former U.S.
Secretary of Agriculture and former
LDS Church
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, informally known as the LDS Church or Mormon Church, is a nontrinitarian Christian church that considers itself to be the restoration of the original church founded by Jesus Christ. The c ...
president
President most commonly refers to:
*President (corporate title)
* President (education), a leader of a college or university
* President (government title)
President may also refer to:
Automobiles
* Nissan President, a 1966–2010 Japanese ...
Ezra Taft Benson
Ezra Taft Benson (August 4, 1899 – May 30, 1994) was an American farmer, government official, and religious leader who served as the 15th United States Secretary of Agriculture during both presidential terms of Dwight D. Eisenhower and ...
, he attended
Brigham Young University
Brigham Young University (BYU, sometimes referred to colloquially as The Y) is a private research university in Provo, Utah. It was founded in 1875 by religious leader Brigham Young and is sponsored by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-d ...
, from which he graduated ''
cum laude,'' and became the cartoonist for the ''
Arizona Republic
''The Arizona Republic'' is an American daily newspaper published in Phoenix. Circulated throughout Arizona, it is the state's largest newspaper. Since 2000, it has been owned by the Gannett newspaper chain. Copies are sold at $2 daily or at $3 ...
'' in 1980.
He moved to the ''
Tacoma Morning News Tribune'' in 1990, but then returned to the ''Arizona Republic'' in 1991,
and remained until laid off in January 2019. Benson is now the staff political cartoonist for Arizona Mirror news and his work continues to be nationally distributed by
Creators Syndicate
Creators Syndicate (also known as Creators) is an American independent distributor of comic strips and syndicated columns to daily newspapers, websites, and other digital outlets. When founded in 1987, Creators Syndicate became one of the few suc ...
.
Awards
Benson was awarded the 1993
Pulitzer Prize for Editorial Cartooning
The Pulitzer Prize for Illustrated Reporting and Commentary is one of the fourteen Pulitzer Prizes that is annually awarded for journalism in the United States. It is the successor to the Pulitzer Prize for Editorial Cartooning awarded from 1922 t ...
, was a Pulitzer finalist in 1984, 1989, 1992, and 1994,
and has received a variety of other awards.
He has served as president of the
Association of American Editorial Cartoonists
The Association of American Editorial Cartoonists (AAEC) is a professional association concerned with promoting the interests of staff, freelance and student editorial cartoonists in the United States, Canada and Mexico. With nearly 200 members, it ...
. His cartoons have been collected in a number of books.
Controversy
In the late 1980s he was at first a supporter, then a prominent critic, of
Evan Mecham
Evan Mecham ( ; May 12, 1924 – February 21, 2008) was an American businessman and the 17th governor of Arizona, serving from January 5, 1987, until his impeachment conviction on April 4, 1988. A decorated veteran of World War II, Mecham was a ...
, the first
Mormon
Mormons are a religious and cultural group related to Mormonism, the principal branch of the Latter Day Saint movement started by Joseph Smith in upstate New York during the 1820s. After Smith's death in 1844, the movement split into severa ...
to be elected
governor of Arizona
A governor is an administrative leader and head of a polity or political region, ranking under the head of state and in some cases, such as governors-general, as the head of state's official representative. Depending on the type of political ...
. Benson's criticism stirred controversy among Arizona's Mormon population, leading some LDS Church members to seek the intervention of Benson's grandfather in the matter.
In the midst of the scandal, Governor Mecham telephoned Benson and told him to stop drawing critical cartoons about him, or his eternal soul would be in jeopardy. Benson was later relieved of his position on a stake high council.
In 1993 Benson faced further controversy within the LDS Church, when he stated that his grandfather, then nearing his 94th birthday, was suffering from
senility
Dementia is a disorder which manifests as a set of related symptoms, which usually surfaces when the brain is damaged by injury or disease. The symptoms involve progressive impairments in memory, thinking, and behavior, which negatively affec ...
that was being concealed by church leadership. Later that year, Benson publicly left the church.
He has since become a critic of religious belief, appearing at
Freedom From Religion Foundation
The Freedom From Religion Foundation (FFRF) is an American nonprofit organization, which advocates for atheists, agnostics, and nontheists. Formed in 1976, FFRF promotes the separation of church and state, and challenges the legitimacy of many ...
's annual conventions and stating in its paper Freethought Today, "If, as the true believers claim, the word 'gospel' means good news, then the good news for me is that there is no gospel, other than what I can define for myself, by observation and conscience. As a freethinking human being, I have come not to favor or fear religion, but to face and fight it as an impediment to civilized advancement."
In 1997, a Benson cartoon used the image of a firefighter carrying a dead child to comment on the death sentence that had just been imposed on
Oklahoma City bombing
The Oklahoma City bombing was a domestic terrorism in the United States, domestic terrorist truck bombing of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, United States, on April 19, 1995. Perpetrated by two anti-federal go ...
defendant
Timothy McVeigh
Timothy James McVeigh (April 23, 1968 – June 11, 2001) was an American domestic terrorist responsible for the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing that killed 168 people, 19 of whom were children, injured more than 680 others, and destroyed one-third ...
. Benson forcefully defended his work against some readers' contentions that the cartoon was insensitive.
In 1999, Benson released a political cartoon titled “Texas Bonfire Traditions”. In the cartoon, he compared the
1999 Texas A&M Bonfire Collapse to the
Waco siege
The Waco siege, also known as the Waco massacre, was the law enforcement siege of the compound that belonged to the religious sect Branch Davidians. It was carried out by the U.S. federal government, Texas state law enforcement, and the U.S. ...
of 1993 and the
murder of James Byrd Jr.
James Byrd Jr. (May 2, 1949 – June 7, 1998) was a black American man who was murdered by three white men, two of whom were avowed white supremacists, in Jasper, Texas, on June 7, 1998. Shawn Berry, Lawrence Brewer, and John King dragged him fo ...
in 1998. This prompted negative reactions and criticism from Texas A&M, and forced The Arizona Republic to remove the cartoon.
References
Further reading
*
*
External links
Benson's View ''The Arizona Republic''
The Giffords Shooting, as Only a Pulitzer Prize-winning Cartoonist Could Render itBilly Ireland Cartoon Library & Museum Art Database
Benson’s Corner Arizona Mirror
{{DEFAULTSORT:Benson, Steve
1954 births
20th-century Mormon missionaries
American atheists
American editorial cartoonists
American Mormon missionaries in Japan
American humanists
Brigham Young University alumni
Former Latter Day Saints
Living people
Pulitzer Prize for Editorial Cartooning winners
Critics of Mormonism
Benson family