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Continental: Complaints Led to Drop-'Doonesbury' Poll
Editor and Publisher ^ | July 21, 2004 11:50 AM EST, updated at 1:20 PM | Dave Astor

Posted on 07/21/2004 1:52:19 PM PDT by new cruelty

NEW YORK A poll that resulted in a vote to drop "Doonesbury" was defended by the head of a Sunday-comics consortium.

"It was not a political statement of any kind," Continental Features President Van Wilkerson told E&P. "I personally don't have an opinion about 'Doonesbury' one way or another."

Wilkerson said he conducted the survey because Garry Trudeau's comic "created more controversy than other strips." In the poll e-mail he sent Continental's newspaper clients this spring, Wilkerson wrote: "(I)t is my feeling that a change in one of the features is required. I have fielded numerous complaints about 'Doonesbury' in the past and feel it is time to drop this feature and add another in its place. ... If the majority of the group favors a replacement, you will be expected to accept that change."

Of the 38 papers that run the Continental-produced Sunday comics section, 21 wanted to drop "Doonesbury," 15 wanted to keep it, and two had no opinion or preference. "I wouldn't call the vote [to drop 'Doonesbury'] overwhelming, but it was a majority opinion," Wilkerson said.

One of the 15 papers, The Anniston (Ala.) Star (Click for QuikCap), expressed public dismay with the vote yesterday -- saying the decision amounted to censorship. In an E&P interview after that article appeared, Star Executive Editor Troy Turner said: "Sure, 'Doonesbury' causes editors headaches from time to time, but there is a proven readership for it. Newspapers need to think of readers first, or they will continue to struggle."

Turner added that he doesn't recall Continental doing polls about any of the other 22 comics in its package; "Doonesbury" was singled out. Wilkerson acknowledged that the survey was out of the norm.

The Continental head said he doesn't know exactly when "Doonesbury" will leave the package; he's currently polling clients to see if they want to replace it with "Agnes," "Get Fuzzy," "Pickles," "Zits," or another comic.

If Continental does pull "Doonesbury" from the package, "we will find a way to run it in the Sunday paper," said Star Editorial Page Editor Bob Davis. He noted that the Star already publishes the daily "Doonesbury" in an unusual locale: the back page of the "A" section.

As previously reported, Star Publisher H. Brandt Ayers e-mailed Wilkerson to say he and his paper's editors "strongly object to an obviously political effort to silence a minority point of view. For years, my New Deal father bore the opposition views of Orphan Annie and Daddy Warbucks, and I believe he would have fought an effort to silence them a by a simple majority vote. This is wrong, offensive to First Amendment freedoms."

"Doonesbury" -- which appears in more than 1,400 papers via Universal Press Syndicate -- has made a lot of news this year with strong criticism of President Bush and the Iraq war. In one sequence, Trudeau offered $10,000 to anyone who could prove Bush served in the Alabama National Guard. And, in an ongoing story line, the B.D. character lost a leg in Iraq and is dealing with the aftermath of that devastating injury.

The 38 papers running the package from Salisbury, N.C.-based Continental are predominately located in the Southeast.


TOPICS: Constitution/Conservatism; Culture/Society; Extended News; Government; News/Current Events; Political Humor/Cartoons; Politics/Elections
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To: summer
At the end of my above long post, I meant to type: deprive these students another visit in the future.
21 posted on 07/21/2004 3:33:26 PM PDT by summer
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To: Larry Lucido

Does the Anniston Star run Mallard Filmore?

Didn't think so.


22 posted on 07/21/2004 3:37:57 PM PDT by Little Ray (John Ffing sKerry: Just a gigolo!)
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To: Dog Gone
Theres another moron convention in Boston this week.

You have to be a Christian hater,communist,pervert,criminal or simpleton to attend.

23 posted on 07/21/2004 3:38:08 PM PDT by Rome2000 (The ENEMY for Kerry!!!!!)
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To: new cruelty

Re my post #19 - BTW, as people can see from all the varied points of view I have posted from editorial cartoonists, not all editorial cartoonists are the way I desribed in my post #19. But, some of them are - and, the fact they will deliberately hurt students, solely because of these cartoonists' political bias against the students' teacher, is a real shame, IMO.


24 posted on 07/21/2004 3:46:46 PM PDT by summer
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To: Sloth; PJ-Comix; ArcLight

FYI.


25 posted on 07/21/2004 3:47:08 PM PDT by summer
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To: dead; lowbridge

FYI.


26 posted on 07/21/2004 3:47:33 PM PDT by summer
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To: Rome2000

LOL


27 posted on 07/21/2004 3:52:17 PM PDT by Dog Gone
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To: Rome2000
At the Democrat convention:


28 posted on 07/21/2004 3:59:44 PM PDT by Dog Gone
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To: new cruelty
One of the 15 papers, The Anniston (Ala.) Star (Click for QuikCap), expressed public dismay with the vote yesterday -- saying the decision amounted to censorship.

I must have missed the part involving government agencies.

29 posted on 07/21/2004 4:06:35 PM PDT by Sloth (We have to support RINOs like Specter; their states are too liberal to elect someone like Santorum.)
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To: Dog Gone; Rome2000

Dick Locher, Chicago -- The Chicago Tribune
30 posted on 07/21/2004 4:09:32 PM PDT by summer
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To: Sloth

Good point.


31 posted on 07/21/2004 4:10:11 PM PDT by summer
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To: summer

Oh, good one.


32 posted on 07/21/2004 4:13:57 PM PDT by Dog Gone
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To: new cruelty

Yes. I hate Doonsbury. It is propaganda and NOT FUNNY EVER. If only my paper would sweep it into the dust bin of toontown as well.


33 posted on 07/21/2004 5:29:06 PM PDT by garjog
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To: new cruelty

Watch them replace it with "The Boondocks" ...


34 posted on 07/21/2004 5:33:24 PM PDT by asgardshill ("I like the yellow ones")
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To: beelzepug
Get Fuzzy is wonderful

Right! Nobody can draw a dog like Satch. I started reading it when he was visiting his father in Canada for his birthday and the old, er, dog was making fun of Satch for being nothing but a pet instead of a real working dog. It's not at all hard to suspend disbelief reading about Satch's pitiful inferiority complexes.

35 posted on 07/21/2004 5:39:07 PM PDT by 19th LA Inf
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To: Dog Gone

I don't care for Get Fuzzy. Yet somehow I still read it. Just like I feel compelled to read 'Helen Sweetheart of the Internet'. A poorer comic there is not.


36 posted on 07/21/2004 6:38:56 PM PDT by new cruelty
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To: new cruelty

This is a beautiful thing!


37 posted on 07/21/2004 8:05:13 PM PDT by Rockitz (After all these years, it's still rocket science.)
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To: new cruelty

We need to go after Ted Rall too!


38 posted on 07/21/2004 8:08:38 PM PDT by Rockitz (After all these years, it's still rocket science.)
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To: Rockitz

We need to go after Ted Rall too!

I agree, the administration should limit reading materials to an approved list. That's not just an old commie idea. It's American now!!


39 posted on 07/21/2004 8:21:31 PM PDT by allrightythen
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To: allrightythen
I agree, the administration should limit reading materials to an approved list. That's not just an old commie idea. It's American now!!

Just as Ted Rall has every right to be the blight on society he is, I have every right to exterminate his presence from the toonscape of humanity in almost any manner I so choose.

BTW, wake up and get real, we're not living in Utopia anymore!

40 posted on 07/21/2004 11:26:13 PM PDT by Rockitz (After all these years, it's still rocket science.)
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