Baltimore Sun Dismisses KAL

 

 

Via DailyCartoonist:

After 31 years (1988-2006, 2012-2025) Kevin (KAL) Kallaugher has been let go by The Baltimore Sun.

From KAL:

I am disappointed to announce that after 31 years of award-winning cartoons in The Baltimore Sun, I was abruptly dismissed from the paper on Friday.

It was just a matter of time.

In February of 2024, David Smith, the conservative owner of the Sinclair Broadcasting group purchased the struggling paper. As my politics do not align with the new owners, I assumed my days were numbered.

Especially as, in years prior, I had drawn some blistering cartoons in The Sun about Sinclair Broadcasting and its owner…

_{Kevin KAL Kallaugher}

Read KAL’s full report and relevant cartoons at his KAL Draws the Line Substack.

_{KAL’s last ed-op cartoon for The Baltimore Sun for June 21, 2025 (dated June 22, 2025 here})

July 2, 2025 Update:

Baltimore Brew headline about KAL’s dismmissal

The Baltimore Brew carries the story and talks to KAL about being released:

Kallaugher, whose biting cartoons have been skewering Donald Trump and the MAGA movement, among other targets over a decades-long career, figures the real reason for his dismissal is his politics.

Kallaugher described a meeting he was asked to attend last December at Sinclair headquarters in Hunt Valley at which Smith discussed his plan to hire a local-topics-only cartoonist.

“He says, ‘The problem is the paper’s got this ultra-liberal cartoonist,’ and then I realized, he didn’t know he was talking to me,” Kallaugher recalled, chuckling.

Kallaugher declined to restrict his weekly cartoon to local matters (“We’re living in the most pivotal time in American history in a century. I’m not gonna sit that out”) and figured, since then, that his days were numbered.

Responding after publication, Sun publisher and editor-in-chief Trif Alatzas sent the following statement:

“We appreciate KAL’s work on The Sun’s pages during these many years. At this time we have decided to allocate our freelance budget to other areas. We will continue to highlight national and international topics through the work of syndicated editorial cartoonists.”

When The Sun shone on and welcomed KAL in 1988

KAL’s first editorial cartoon for The Baltimore Sun – December 4, 1988

The Baltimore Sun welcomes KAL – December 4, 1988

KAL as cover feature for Sun Magazine – December 4, 1988

Sun Magazine feature stories about KAL and Sun’s history of editorial cartoonists – December 4, 1988