The paper's editorial page had increasingly shown support for Trump, according to Rogers and the Newspaper Guild of Pittsburgh, among others.
Pittsburgh Mayor William Peduto reacted to the sacking of Rogers with a sharp statement Thursday, saying: "The move today by the leadership of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette to fire Rob Rogers after he drew a series of cartoons critical of President Trump is disappointing, and sends the wrong message about press freedoms in a time when they are under siege."
Western Pennsylvania has gone all in for Trump. National Rifle Association instructor Marilyn Boulet, left, and her husband, Bill Perkins, of Gibsonia, rest their hands on their guns while gathering with other supporters of the Second Amendment outside of Pittsburgh.
Photo: Stephanie Strasburg/Pittsburgh Post-Gazette via APThe National Cartoonists Society, which represents hundreds of member cartoonists and other comics-industry professionals, said on Thursday in a statement that it "is saddened by the news that our friend and fellow member, Rob Rogers, was fired from his longstanding job at the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.
The NCS supports Rob in his efforts to maintain his integrity in expressing his ideas and viewpoint, and stands against any form of censorship or suppression of free speech."
During his 34 years as a political cartoonist in Pittsburgh - including a career at the Post-Gazette spanning four supervising editors - Rogers had two to three cartoons a year, on average, killed by his editors.
But Rogers told Comic Riffs last week that he had 19 cartoons or cartoon ideas spiked this year, under new supervisor Burris. And between May 25 and June 4, not a single one of his cartoons was deemed worthy of publishing in the paper. The Post-Gazette instead published cartoons by Kirk Walters of the
