UPDATE: Embarrassed 'Meet The Press' Will Start Crediting Editorial Cartoonists For Their Work

By: E&P Staff "Meet The Press" said Tuesday that the failure of host David Gregory to credit the cartoonist for cartoons aired on the show was "a completely unintentional oversight" - and that they will be recognized in all future shows.

"We love cartoonists and cartoons which is why we like to show them on
'Meet the Press,' the show said in a statement released by an NBC Universal spokesperson. " So often they perfectly capture and get to the heart of the matter. Not mentioning the cartoonists by name has been an completely unintentional oversight and we promise we will give them all the credit they deserve moving forward."

The issue of crediting editorial cartoonists for their work arose from a complaint Rob Tornoe, the editorial cartoonist for The Press in Atlantic City, N.J., posted on his blog at David Cagle's Political Cartoonists Index.

"Does Meet the Press host David Gregory love cartoons but hate cartoonists?" Tornoe wrote. "It sounds ridiculous, but it would at least explain why he has a fondness for showing their work without giving them credit."

He cited an example from last Sunday's "Meet the Press" that he said illustrated the show's habitual failure to acknowledge the cartoonist behind the work. The show aired a cartoon by Denver Post cartoonist Mike Keefe showing two people in a snowdrift in front of the Capitol, with one saying "The government is completely paralyzed," and the other adding, "And then comes this snow storm."

"Here's a cartoon that captures the nexus between government and weather," Gregory said.

"However, viewers left the show knowing none of that, since Gregory didn't bother to name the cartoonist, highlighting a large double-standard when it comes to political cartoonists as pundits. We're like Rodney Dangerfield; We get no respect!," wrote Tornoe, a cartoonist for The Press of Atlantic City, N.J.

"Meet the Press" had declined to comment for a story about the complaints that Editor & Publisher posted on its Web site Monday.