The weeklies slam the dailies for censorship of Doonesbury comic strip

Posted by AzBlueMeanie:

The Daily Cartoonist is compiling a Lists of newspapers who pulled Doonesbury this week – The Daily Cartoonist, as well as papers that are running the series but have opted to move the strip off of the comics page, and papers that are opting for something different, like the Lexington Herald-Leader which will run the entire abortion series on Saturday in their editorial page, and the Winston-Salem Journal which will run the series on Saturday along with a column written by the managing editor.

Arizona's two largest circulation dailies, The Arizona Republic and the Arizona Daily Star, are among the papers that censored the Doonesbury comic strip — during the same week that the Arizona Tea-Publican Senate passed the "Baby Blunt Amendment" giving employers the right to deny contraception coverage to female employees and even to permit employers to terminate contraception users on "religious or moral objections" to their private life; and a panel of the Arizona legislature considered defunding Planned Parenthood, which for many women is the only health care provider for breast cancer screening, cervical cancer screening, etc., available in their community.

Do you think this censorship by the corporate media is related to these bills moving through the Arizona Tea-Publican legislature? "We report, you decide."

Tucson Weekly editor Jimmy Boegle takes the Arizona Daily Star to task for its cowardice in censoring the Doonesbury comic strip. Editor's Note | Tucson Weekly:

The Arizona Daily Star badly erred in its handling of this week's controversial "Doonesbury" comic strips.

The Star decided not to run this week's strips, by the great Garry Trudeau, which deal with a woman taking a trip through right-wing ineptitude at a Texas abortion clinic. The strips discuss real laws enacted in Texas in recent years.

The Star's explanation, as posted on the daily's Facebook page: "We decided not to run this week's 'Doonesbury' story line because of its placement on our comics and puzzle page. Tucson schoolchildren read the Star through our Newspapers in Education program, and we know that comics and puzzles are among the favorite features of our youngest readers.

"In addition to the adult story line, this week's strips use language like transvaginal, rape, slut, contraceptives and genitals. Yes, those words appear in news stories, but such stories are easy for teachers and parents to spot and choose whether to discuss or not. That's not the case on the comics page."

Fair enough. However, as a subscriber to the Star, I now ask: Why didn't editors move the strip somewhere else for the week, like some other newspapers that carry "Doonesbury" are doing? There's certainly plenty of space for these strips among The Associated Press wire copy and the syndicated columns, after all.

Another question: Why didn't the editors publish an explanation in the print version? On Monday and Tuesday, print readers of the Star got no warning about or discussion of the sudden "Doonesbury" re-runs. What about readers who don't follow the Star on Facebook?

Earlier this week, the Phoenix New Times took The Arizona Republic to task for its cowardice in censoring the Doonesbury comic strip. Arizona Republic Joins the Train of Papers Bailing on This Week's "Doonesbury" Cartoons – Phoenix New Times:

The political-correctness police over at the Arizona Republic have decided this week's "Doonesbury" comics won't be showing up in the dead-tree editions of the paper.

The week-long story arc of the comic mocks the abortion laws in Texas, including a woman having a seat in the "shaming room," meeting with a middle-aged, male state legislator who asks the woman if she's a "slut," and a doctor lampooning the mandatory sonogram process.

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The Republic's running the actual comics on its website, but it's among 50 or so other papers that have reportedly opted to not run it in physical copies this week.

The Arizona Daily Star isn't running this week's abortion-flavored comics either.

Our email asking for an explanation about pulling the comics was forwarded along to Arizona Republic editor Randy Lovely, so we'll let you know if he gets back to us.

The Republic actually ran an Associated Press story on Friday — at least, on its website — under the headline "Papers debate using Doonesbury abortion law strips."

There's no mention or note on that about the Republic's editorial decision.

So Arizona's two largest circulation dailies find a comic strip "controversial" and perhaps even offensive, but they do not find the "War on Women" being waged by our Tea-Publican Arizona legislature "controversial" or "offensive" enough to be moved to write an editorial opinion this week in opposition to these bills, which are opposed by the vast majority of Americans. Republicans Losing on Birth Control as 77% in Poll Spurn Debate – Bloomberg.

At one time the role of a newspaper was "to comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable" – Finley Peter Dunne. For the corporate media today it is not to offend the wealthy elite in power, and to hell with everyone else.