Posted on 09/12/2011 7:04:19 PM PDT by Borges
The Chicago Tribune has decided to pull the daily comic strip "Doonesbury" for the entire week from its newspapers and website. The controversy is over a week-long series of satirical material that makes fun of Sarah Palin, the failed Vice-Presidential candidate and the Alaskan Governor who quit her job after just over two years to become a conservative pundit & Tea Party icon.
Facing hefty amounts of criticism and charges of censorship, Chicago Tribune's Senior Vice-president and Editor Gerould W. Kern released a statement, which will be printed inside of tomorrow's newspaper. The statement reads:
"This week we are not publishing 'Doonesbury' comic strips because they do not meet our standards of fairness. We are substituting another strip instead.
The 'Doonesbury' strips refer to allegations purportedly contained in an as-yet-unreleased book about former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin. The book is not yet available for verification or review by the Chicago Tribune.
To be sure, 'Doonesbury' is a satirical cartoon, but the remarks are serious enough that we cannot publish the strip without more information, context and a response from Palin."
This week, a fictional character in Garry Trudeau's "Doonesbury" comic strip is reading passages the forthcoming biography "The Rogue: Searching for the Real Sarah Palin" by Joe McGinniss, and then making a joke about what he read. (Readers of the strip can also see the passages the character reads.) This was done with Joe McGinniss's full approval and cooperation. While the biography is said to not paint Palin in an overly flattering light, the "Doonesbury" strip is doing what it always has done, which is to poke fun at political figures and make social commentary, often with a politically liberal slant.
Despite some outraged readers claim, what the Chicago Tribune is not truly censoring the comic strip, as it is free to make decisions on what it will and will not publish. If the editorial staff feels something is inappropriate for its newspaper or readers, the First Amendment guarantees the paper its right to not publish that potentially upsetting piece.
Where this becomes a bit more hazy is in Kern's statement that they cannot verify the words in the fictional comic strip, something that the Tribune has seemingly never done before with their published comic strips. It has not previously researched comic strip storylines to ensure "Popeye," "Beetle Bailey," or "Funky Winkerbean" were being honest with their fictionalized words. Though Doonesbury and many other comics have made fun of public figures before, the Chicago Tribune has never sought out a rebuttal for the jokes from those public figures.
The Chicago Tribune's own editorial cartoonists, including their chief editorial cartoonist Scott Stantis, make fun of political & public figures almost daily, often with a politically conservative slant.
"Doonesbury" appears in nearly 1500 newspapers in the United States and internationally. The Chicago Tribune is the only newspaper to have an issue with this week's cartoons. For this week, the Chicago Tribune is replacing the seemingly-controversial "Doonesbury" with the family-friendly "Thatababy" comic strip about young parents and their precocious infant.
Fans of Doonesbury can still easily see the comic strip online this week, including at Doonesbury.com.
There has been no public comment on the actions of the Chicago Tribune from "Doonesbury" creator Garry Trudeau or the author of "The Rogue: Searching for the Real Sarah Palin," Joe McGinniss. In the past, Trudeau tends to get his revenge against critics within his comic strip a few weeks later.
Publicity stunt.
Does anyone even read Doonsbury?
Yo, she also machine-guns animals from helicopters and floods pristine wilderness areas with oil.
Dang, get it right.
Amazing - they do a good job of hiding it.
Stopped reading Doonesbury years ago.
It sucks.
Doonesbury is a comic strip like Islam is a religion.
I read the “Doonesbury” strip a of couple times. I came to the conclusion that you must have to be doing drugs to appreciate it.
Garry Trudeau is bitter and full of hate. Only people like him read his garbage.
Garry Trudeau and Joe McGinness are reputed to be seen together in the same picture having their way with chickens.
And Bill Maher is a comedian.
It’s on the editorial page in my paper.
My first thought. Publicity stunt.
they keep saying she’ll never be elected-
...so why are they so afraid of her?
Actually, Popeye had a more severe reaction when it touched on the abortion issue:
(From comic-art.com)
BOBBY LONDON INTERVIEW
S.C. RINGGENBERG: I’m speaking with Bobbie London. It’s July thirtieth, 1992. Bobbie, please tell me in your own words, what happened with the Popeye brouhaha with King Features.
BOBBIE LONDON: Well, on October twenty-fifth, I did a gag where the Sea Hag uttered the words: `Drat! There goes Roe v. Wade.’ and didn’t hear a peep out of the syndicate and since I always heard from them whenever they objected to any kinds of punchlines or other nonsense that I might have injected in the strip, which was seldom, but it did happen occasionally. I automatically assumed that Roe v. Wade was considered fair game by them and I proceeded to prepare a full-length story about the subject.
[ . . . ]
RINGGENBERG: And how long have you been drawing the Popeye strip?
LONDON: Since 1986.
RINGGENBERG: Okay, so why don’t you run down, as briefly as you want, exactly how did the syndicate notify you that your work was unacceptable and that you were being terminated?
LONDON: Well, in, you know, uh, they, I can, I can just tell you very briefly because it happened very briefly and very abruptly. They just, the editor, Jay Kennedy, just called me up and told me that they were unhappy with the storyline and I was fired. It was simple as that.
The question should be, “Does anyone read the Chi Trib?”
Maybe this is just a stunt to garner more readers.
Precisely.
Garry Trudeau. Jan Wenner. Lorne Michaels. et al.
The Depends Generation.
You’d have to be a really sick liberal to get any pleasure out of reading Doonesbury.
I think I vaguely remember a time, many years ago, when it was kind of funny. Something about the beak on that penguin. But I’m not really sure, it was such a long time ago.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.