Background
Benson is the grandson of former United States. Secretary of Agriculture and former Latter- Day Saints (Mormons) Church president Ezra Taft Benson.
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- Photos
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Steve Benson
Edit Profilesecretary editorial cartoonist
Education
Benson attended Brigham Young University, from which he graduated cum laude.
Career
He became the cartoonist for the Arizona Republic in 1980. Benson moved to the Tacoma Morning News Tribune in 1990, but then returned to the Arizona Republic in 1991. Later that year, Benson publicly left the church.
He has since become a critic of religious belief, appearing at Freedom From Religion Foundation"s annual conventions and stating in its paper Freethought Today, "If, as the true believers claim, the word "gospel" means good news, then the good news for me is that there is no gospel, other than what I can define for myself, by observation and conscience.
As a freethinking human being, I have come not to favor or fear religion, but to face and fight it as an impediment to civilized advancement."
In 1997, a Benson cartoon used the image of a firefighter carrying a dead child to comment on the death sentence that had just been imposed on Oklahoma City bombing defendant Timothy McVeigh. He has served as president of the Association of American Editorial Cartoonists.
His cartoons have been collected in a number of books
Achievements
Views
Benson forcefully defended his work against some readers" contentions that the cartoon was insensitive.
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Born
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Nationality
United States
Education
Awards
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Pulitzer Prize for Editorial Cartooning Pulitzer Prize for Editorial Cartooning
The Pulitzer Prize for Editorial Cartoon is one of the fourteen American Pulitzer Prizes that are annually awarded for Journalism.The Pulitzer Prize for Editorial Cartoon is one of the fourteen American Pulitzer Prizes that are annually awarded for Journalism.