Pulitzer Prize-winning cartoonist Mark Fiore not surprised by Paris attack
SAN FRANCISCO (KGO) -- When you think of people who put their lives on the line, you might think of soldiers or firefighters; certainly not cartoonists. But to those who draw satire for a living, Wednesday's deadly attack at a satirical newspaper in Paris comes as somewhat less of a surprise.
Satirical drawings line the walls at San Francisco's Cartoon Art Museum. Drawings like the ones that earned Mark Fiore a Pulitzer Prize. And like the ones that may have sparked the deadly terror attack at the French paper Charlie Hebdo.
"It was sadness, mainly," Fiore said. "I mean, I'm sad to say it wasn't shock, but it's just an awful awful day for cartoonists and reporters and editors."
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Fiore knows firsthand the emotional response a cartoon can get.
"It's the fact that it's a visual medium and it can grab you instantly," he said. "It's in a lot of ways more effective than the written word. And while this attack is incredibly high profile, and incredibly terrible, there are cartoonists that are attacked every year."
And journalists of other types.
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The terror group ISIS posted videos depicting the beheading of American journalists, leaving news editors in a serious quandary.
"You don't want to get your people killed, but you also want to tell the story," said Center for Investigative Reporting Director Robert Rosenthal.
At the Center for Investigative Reporting, they know that sort of intimidation has a long history.
"The Soviet Union under Stalin, or the Nazis under Hitler, or the Stazi in East Germany, what do they control? They control information. And who they try to eliminate are journalists or people who speak the truth," Rosenthal said.
Rosenthal hopes the tactic won't work. Though terrorists use social media, so do supporters of free speech.
The hashtag #JeSuisCharlie, which means "I am Charlie," was trending worldwide.
"We're seeing in Paris, where hundreds of thousands of people I think, were on the streets holding pens," Rosenthal said.
READ MORE: Artists react to Charlie Hebdo attack with political cartoons
The Center for Investigative Reporting added its own voice.
"We had written a couple of things and then we said -- let's do it this way with an image," Rosenthal said.
After all, images can be the most powerful message of all.
"If only they had fought back with cartoons," Fiore said. "I mean, why not that? You know, why guns."
President Barack Obama added his voice to the growing outcry, saying, "Our universal belief in freedom of expression is something that can't be silenced."
