Cartoonist Darrin Bell Arrested On Suspicion of Child Porn Possession

On top of all their other problems, publishers learned last week that syndicated editorial cartoonist Darrin Bell was arrested on charges of possession of child pornography. 

According to The Washington Post, police claim they discovered more than 100 videos of child sexual abuse, some generated by AI, in a raid at Bell’s California residence. 

As of Friday, the Pulitzer Prize winning cartoonist reportedly was being held on $1 million bail.  

Effective this month, California law now prohibits possession of artificial intelligence (AI)-generated child abuse content. Bell is reportedly the first arrest under that measure.

Counterpoint Media, the licensing and syndication firm representing Bell, has suspended him from contributing to its daily newsletter, the Post reports. 

“While we are aware that the American system of justice presumes innocence until proven guilty, we feel it necessary to suspend Mr. Bell from future contributions to Counterpoint until more is known about the charges,” the media group said in a statement, according to the Post.  

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The case began when detectives from the Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force Program were informed by the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children that someone had uploaded 18 files containing child sex abuse material, or child pornography, according to the Sacramento County sheriff’s office, the Post reports.

Detectives say they found 134 videos of such material uploaded by an account owned and controlled by Bell, the Post adds.

It was not clear at deadline whether Bell accessed this material for research purposes, assuming he did upload it as charged.  

Bell received the Pulitzer Prize for editorial cartooning in 2019, the first Black artist to receive that honor.  

The prize committee said he addressed “lies, hypocrisy and fraud in the political turmoil surrounding the Trump administration.”

Bell’s work is syndicated in the Los Angeles Times, San Francisco Chronicle, and Washington Post, according to Sky News.  

If nothing else, Bell’s output could be slowed by the charges.  

For the Post, at least, this is another hit to its editorial cartooning. In December, Pulitzer Prize-winning cartoonist Ann Telnaes resigned over the rejection of her cartooning showing Post owner Jeff Bezos and other tech giants bending the knee to Donald Trump.

 

 

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