Doonesbury to be Censored

Good Riddance

Published on July 22, 2004 By CS Guy In Entertainment

Continental Features, a Sunday-comics consortium, has decided to drop “Doonesbury” after a poll of the 38 papers that run the Continental-produced Sunday comics section. 21 papers voted to drop it, 15 to keep it, and 2 had no opinion.

Van Wilkerson, President of Continental Features, said that Garry Trudeau’s comic “created more controversy than other strips.” And stated, “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.”

Troy Turner, Executive Editor of the Anniston Star equates this move with censorship. And Star Publisher H. Brandt Ayers told Continental that he and his paper “"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 by a simple majority vote. This is wrong, offensive to First Amendment freedoms."

This is not an issue of censorship. This is not “an obviously political effort to silence a minority point of view.” This is a business decision made by businessmen who have a responsibility to maximize the appeal of their product.

The First Amendment may give you the right to speak your mind, but it does not guarantee that someone will provide you with a nationally distributed soapbox and pay you for your opinion.

Personally, I have no problem with the political message of Doonesbury. However, I do have a problem with such a tragically unfunny comic. Good riddance.

Comments

apdelong31

on Jul 22, 2004

If they're going to get rid of unfunny comics, why doesn't every paper drop Apartment 3G, Prince Valiant, and Ziggy? I think if businessmen wanted to "maximize the appeal of their product", they could drop other comics and features before Doonesbury. If "numerous complaints" were received, obviously there was a large reader base.

Hopefully the Columbus Dispatch won't drop it (I'm not sure if it's with Continental Features), but I usually find a bit of humor in Doonesbury when I read it. The Dispatch would have to do a lot more to maximize it's appeal, lol.

CS Guy

on Jul 22, 2004

If "numerous complaints" were received, obviously there was a large reader base.

Yes, but if a large portion of your consumers say, "We don't like this part of your product!" The smart response is not to give them more of it.

uh... yeah.

on Jul 22, 2004

LONG LIVE CALVIN AND HOBBS!

CS Guy

on Jul 22, 2004

Reply #3 By: uh... yeah. (Anonymous) - 7/22/2004 2:32:40 PM
LONG LIVE CALVIN AND HOBBS

Heh, agreed.

CygnusXII

on Jul 22, 2004

I used to have quite a collection of Doonesbury Books. From the very beginning, to the hiatus, Gary took. He ripped many Presidents' Nixon, Carter, Ford, Reagan, then Nam, Cig's, Drugs the list is too numerous to count. Granted, His Meat and Potato's was always political satirism, the American Public Now a Days wants to be entertained; Not educated by the funnys'. I mean with unemployment at all time highs, and political strife the way it is, the last thing you want to see is more pessimism. This is just one Mans' opinion.

CS Guy

on Jul 23, 2004

I mean with unemployment at all time highs

This is absolutely false. Current unemployment is at 5.6%. 2003 and 2002 were both higher than that. So was 1991, 1992, 1993, and 1994. And 1975 through 1987. 1990 was the same 5.6%. In fact, in the past 30 years the only years to have an unemployment rate less than our current rate were 1988, 1989, 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000, and 2001.

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