Buffalo Newspaper Guild cancels event after cartoon depicting Trump supporters, Texas floods sparked backlash

The Buffalo Newspaper Guild canceled an event supporting local journalism on Thursday citing safety concerns after a cartoon published by The Buffalo News depicting a supporter of President Donald Trump being swept away by the flooding went viral and prompted backlash Constituents criticism of an editorial cartoon about Texas flooding published Tuesday in The Buffalo News and malicious campaigning for individuals to protest and confront Adam Zyglis at this event has resulted in a series of death threats against Zyglis and a deluge of other direct threats to hurt him and his family the Guild wrote in a comment posted to social media Historic flash floods have struck Southern Texas with at least deaths and dozens more missing a caption for the July th cartoon drawn by The Buffalo News' editorial cartoonist Adam Zyglis read The image sparked backlash from conservatives We wholly condemn the individuals who have chosen to twist a positive society event into an attempt to terrorize and silence Zyglis spread fear among journalists and their supporters and distort the mission of a free press the comment added OBAMA BROS BALK AT FAR-LEFT SAYING TEXANS BROUGHT FLOOD CALAMITY ON THEMSELVES BY SUPPORTING TRUMPThe Guild explained the event which was meant to honor Zyglis will be postponed according to the message The cartoon demonstrated a man wearing a red MAGA hat being submerged under floodwaters in Kerr County Texas while holding a HELP sign There is also a speech bubble of the man saying Gov t is the dilemma not the response The News Guild also re-posted the Buffalo Newspaper Guild's comment offering patronage for Zyglis Zyglis weighed in on the canceled event on his Instagram Tonight s event at the Buffalo History Museum is unfortunately postponed to do safety concerns Threats to me and my family are never an acceptable response to disagreeing with an editorial cartoon Threats of violence have no place in a democracy that supports Freedom of Speech and the First Amendment he wrote OUTRAGE ON SOCIAL MEDIA OVER LIBERAL FIGURES POLITICIZING TEXAS FLOOD MISHAP The Buffalo News remains the largest news organization in Western New York Its staff including members of the Buffalo Newspaper Guild are dedicated to providing comprehensive and accurate information to the people who live and work here every day The spiteful campaign to attack and harm Zyglis represents only one more example of the challenges we face as a public and the need to better communicate and patronage our vital general role the Buffalo Newspaper Guild's report added Several liberal media figures and Democratic Party members came under fire for similarly politicizing the flash floods and blaming President Donald Trump and DOGE for causing the tragedy despite reports that the National Weather Provision office in the area had extra staff on duty at the time of the flooding Fox News' Lindsay Kornick contributed to this record