Sinkings & sailings

Ichiro was a hero of more than bat and glove; Kent has no business being spy chief; former TDN manager joins in stifling political cartooning

Ichiro Suzuki ‘s behavior, manners were hall-of-fame caliber, too

I-ch-iro. I-ch-iro. I-chi-ro.

The name of the Seattle Mariner Ichiro Suzuki, recently elected to The Baseball Hall of Fame, rhymes with “hero,” especially in the way fans chanted it in syllables.

Ichiro’s prowess as a hitter and outfielder were indeed heroic. But he’s a hero to me for another quality — his social grace.

I’m so tired of athletes who pound their chests, complain of “disrespect” at any perceived slight, and who can’t put a simple grammatical sentence together.

Ichiro never boasted. He never”showed up” the other team or another player. He was modest throughout his 14 seasons with the Seattle ball club.

That quality was evident from the very start of his first season, when he made a remarkable throw from right field to put out a runner at third base. He just turned around and walked back into position, as if he’d just shagged a routine fly ball. No fist pumping. No pointing. No baseball equivalent of dancing in the end zone.

Even late in his career, when his English likely was more than adequate to use in media interviews, he continued to use a translator. He explained that he did so out of concern that he would be inarticulate, misuse our language or say something unintended.

Grace, manners, comportment and good speech were important to Ichiro, perhaps due to his upbringing in Japan. You no longer hear or see those words in action much in 21st Century America, and that’s one major reason why our social, business and political discourse is often so crude and troubled.

“Speaking your mind” and “expressing yourself” are no justification for boorish behavior.

Thanks, Ichiro, for reminding us of the need for these old-world values.

Joe Kent has no business being nation’s spy chief

You have got to be kidding me. This is egregious even by President Donald Trump’s (lack of) standards.

Trump has tapped Joe Kent, a Yacolt Republican who ran unsuccessfully for Southwest Washington’s congressional seat in 2022 and 2024, to be the head of U.S. counterintelligence.

This is the same Joe Kent who advocated for the FBI to surveil “antifa” groups.

This is the same Joe Kent whose connections with a shadowy military contractor led to allegations that he was employed in a “phantom job” and was paid to campaign. (He was “cleared” by a superficial federal investigation that never determined exactly what work Kent performed.)

The former Green Beret and CIA operative had Trump’s backing in both his failed campaigns. He has defended the January 6 insurrectionists. He consistently criticized investigations and prosecutions of the former president as “Banana Republic” tyranny. In 2023, Kent called the FBI a “secret domestic intelligence agency” that should be defunded.

Numerous questions linger about the sources of millions of dollars in Kent’s campaign finance receipts. (For a full story about Kent’s backfround, check out https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/feb/05/trump-national-security-joe-kent his campaign financing

If appointed director of the National Counterterrorism Center, Kent would have a critical intelligence role in the Trump administration. He might know a lot about spying, but Kent should be the one who should be investigated, not the one ordering the investigations.

I don’t think it should matter what your politics are. The Senate should deny Kent’s appointment.

Editorial cartoon decision no laughing matter

Some of you might remember Dave Cuddihy, who was briefly the general manager at The Daily News during the final months before my retirement there in 2020.

It came to my attention recently that Cuddihy, as publisher of the Latrobe Bulletin in Pennsylvania, discontinued all further editorial cartoons following publication of an editorial cartoon he considered objectionable.

(The 121-year old Latrobe Bulletin is the property of family owned Sample News Group, not Lee Enterprises, the Iowa-based firm that publishes The Daily News.)

The cartoon by Lee Judge showed an upside-down American flag over the White House on Presidential Inauguration Day, Jan. 20.

In a note to readers, Cuddihy apologized that “such an offensive political cartoon slip(ped) through our editorial process … While political cartoons have run in newspapers … for many years, this is a final example of how we feel they have run their course. As Americans we respect rights and views on all sides.”

Several points to consider:

For one, he’s disrespecting a long, rich and STILL-potent journalistic tradition that is protected by the First Amendment. In America, political cartooning goes back to the days of Thomas Nast (1840-1902). In England, the tradition started with James Gillray (1756-1815), whose depictions pilloried the Whigs and the British monarchy. If the art form had “run its course,” critics wouldn’t be targeting it.

The Latrobe cartoon in question does not sound objectionable. This is certainly not the first time Old Glory has been used and distorted to express an opinion. The cartoon did not disrespect the flag; it lamented the new presidency. That’s fair game.

If his own politics disagreed with Judge’s, Cuddihy (pronounced CUD-i-hay) could have published one more in line with a conservative or MAGA viewpoint.

Newspapers big and small should take controversial editorial stands. It’s called leadership. Newspapers who do not provide it will soon find themselves irrelevant.

Finally, Cuddihy proves he does not respect the rights of those with whom he disagrees, or he has an onion skin for resisting criticism.

Unfortunately, political cartooning is on the wane in America. Last year, for example, newspaper giant McClatchey laid off three Pulitzer Prize-winning cartoonists — Jack Ohman of the Sacramento Bee, Joel Pett of the Lexington Herald-Leader and Kevin Siers of the Charlotte Observer — on the same day when it decided not to run daily political cartoons.

The reason? Money of course. Not that these artists make a lot. My guess is that newspaper circulation has declined so much that publishers fear the loss of even a few readers who get ticked off enough to unsubscribe.

So many companies and publishers like Cuddihy are emasculating their newspapers in a desperate, but wrongheaded, effort to survive.

It’s a sad time in America.