Wednesday, July 27, 2005; Posted: 10:25 a.m. EDT (14:25 GMT)
"Doonesbury" made reference to a slightly off-color nickname for presidential adviser Karl Rove.
KANSAS CITY, Missouri (AP) -- It may be President Bush's nickname for key political adviser Karl Rove, but some editors don't think it belongs in their newspapers.
About a dozen papers objected to Tuesday's and Wednesday's "Doonesbury" comic strips, and some either pulled or edited them.
The strips refer to Rove, the White House deputy chief of staff, as "Turd Blossom."
Lee Salem, editor at Kansas City-based Universal Press Syndicate, which distributes the strip to 1,400 papers, said the complaints from 10 to 12 newspapers weren't unexpected. As opposed to other times when editors have objected to Doonesbury content, the syndicate did not send out replacement strips.
"Given the coverage of Karl Rove, we thought it was appropriate, especially given the history of the strip," Salem said.
Doonesbury's creator, Garry Trudeau, has infuriated some editors over the years with his language, images and political themes. An e-mail to Trudeau wasn't immediately returned Tuesday.
Salem said that since newspapers don't have to notify the syndicate when they choose to remove a strip, it's impossible to know how many papers ran Tuesday's comic.
In the strip, Bush and an aide are lamenting the problems the administration has had over allegations that Rove leaked the name of a CIA officer to reporters.
Bush says, "Karl's sure been earnin' his nickname lately."
The unnamed aide says, "Boy Genius? I'm not so sure sir ..."
Bush then says, "Hey Turd Blossom! Get in here."
The term is said to be one of several nicknames Bush uses for Rove, one of his closest allies and who is widely credited for Bush's election in 2000 and re-election in 2004. The mainstream U.S. media have rarely mentioned the nickname, but it has gained traction in the international press and on the Internet.
Among those with concerns was the Providence (Rhode Island) Journal, whose editors removed the offensive word from the strip's final panel.
"I didn't think (taking out the word) hurt it," Executive Editor Joel Rawson said. "I would prefer to run the strip and if we can edit it, that's fine."
Other papers, such as The Kansas City Star, removed the strip entirely, replacing it with an older one.
"We thought it was in bad taste and probably unclear to a lot of people why we would be using the term," said Steve Shirk, the Star's managing editor/news.
Joined: Mon Apr 04, 2005 2:18 am Posts: 3920 Location: Philadelphia
Quote:
Next time Trudeau should use my nickname for Rove--"Steaming pile of maggot-ridden dog shit."
Hey, that's my nickname for him... but yeh, that would be nice if they used it.
_________________ I remember doing nothing on the night Sinatra died
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Among those with concerns was the Providence (Rhode Island) Journal, whose editors removed the offensive word from the strip's final panel.
"I didn't think (taking out the word) hurt it," Executive Editor Joel Rawson said. "I would prefer to run the strip and if we can edit it, that's fine."
TURD is a bad word now?
What the fuck? Newspapers are editing comic strips to weed out "offensive language"? And one of those offensive words is "TURD"?????
And that RI editor who took the word out thought it would not impact the strip? That phrase, "turd blossom", is the fucking punchline. How stupid can this editor be?
Oh fuck me in the brain, this pisses me off so much.
_________________ cirlces they grow and they swallow people whole half their lives they say goodnight to wives they'll never know got a mind full of questions and a teacher in my soul and so it goes
Joined: Sun Oct 17, 2004 7:19 pm Posts: 39068 Location: Chapel Hill, NC, USA Gender: Male
genxgirl wrote:
Quote:
Among those with concerns was the Providence (Rhode Island) Journal, whose editors removed the offensive word from the strip's final panel.
"I didn't think (taking out the word) hurt it," Executive Editor Joel Rawson said. "I would prefer to run the strip and if we can edit it, that's fine."
TURD is a bad word now?
What the fuck? Newspapers are editing comic strips to weed out "offensive language"? And one of those offensive words is "TURD"?????
And that RI editor who took the word out thought it would not impact the strip? That phrase, "turd blossom", is the fucking punchline. How stupid can this editor be?
Oh fuck me in the brain, this pisses me off so much.
I think the press should be print any word that the president says, regardless of how offensive it may or may not be.
_________________ "Though some may think there should be a separation between art/music and politics, it should be reinforced that art can be a form of nonviolent protest." - e.v.
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