Profanity in 'Doonesbury' Rankles Papers

[Rose Siding]

KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- At least 20 newspapers are objecting to Saturday's "Doonesbury" comic strip because it features a profanity, uttered in the strip by Vice President Dick Cheney.

Editors told Universal Press Syndicate, the comic strip's distributor, that if their reporters aren't allowed to use profanity in stories, they don't think "Doonesbury" should, either.

In Garry Trudeau's comic, the voice of Cheney directs a caricature of President George Bush to tell a reporter to "go f--- himself."
...........
The comic plays off two controversies. In June, Cheney directed a similar profane comment at Democratic Sen. Patrick Leahy during a confrontation on the Senate floor while members were having their annual group picture taken.

The strip also refers to questions about a mysterious bulge in Bush's suit jacket during a recent presidential debate. Some have speculated that the bulge was an audio receiver and that the president was getting messages passed to him. The White House and others have laughed off that suggestion.

In the strip, Cheney's voice is coming into Bush's ear.

http://www.newsday.com/news/politics/wire/sns-ap-doonesbury-flap,0,5956248.story?coll=sns-ap-politics-headlines

[Carolab]

1. Well, then I object

to B.C.'s flagrant trashing of Kerry

[baldguy]

2. I object to the human profanity that's occupying the White House.

[ima_sinnic]

3. they object to Doonesbury's cartoon of Cheney saying it, but

I don't remember any particular objection to Cheney's saying it, at the time.

go figure. :crazy:

[NeoConsSuck]

7. Nice One!!

Call them on their hypocracy!

[kokomo]

4. Doonsebury already banned by a small chain of papers in the S.E.

[davidinalameda]

5. snooze

of course most of these are bible belt papers where people aren't allowed to think for themselves

[Wind Dancer]

8. LOL!

[alphafemale]

6. Well I guess I'm buying tomorrows paper!

:D

[Danmel]

9. Doonesbury on the Editorial Page

You can tell a lot about a paper if it runs Doonesbury on the editorial page and not with the other comics. Go Gary! Nail these hypocritical SOBs.

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

10. But that's what Cheney said

Do these papers have a problem with the truth?

[truthisfreedom]

11. it's been obvioius for years, they can't HANDLE the truth.

look at their lack of interest in the 9-11 coverups.

[bling bling]

12. Trudeau is brilliant. Oh, the irony. n/t

[suegeo]

13. My delicate female nature!

I got a horrible case of the vapors when Dick told Patrick to go fornicate himself while both were on the senate floor.

Now, my vapors will kick into high gear tomorrow when the newspapers report on the matter again.

Oh my. Where are all the gentlemen to protect me from such profanity? I may just swoon, Rhett.

[Lisa]

14. oh, goodness me!

So it's okay for Bush and Cheney to cuss (for example, calling Adam Clymer an "asshole" in 2000) -- but it's NOT okay to simply quote them?

The funny thing is -- the Cheney character is depicted as saying "f---". There are a whole bunch of 4-letter words beginning with "f" in the dictionary. People who would see the harm in the phrase as it's printed are already thinking naughty thoughts, right? (Not that I'm immune to that sort of thing -- I admit that I've later found out that the words actually bleeped out of movies etc. were not as interesting as the ones I'd mentally substituted.)

p.s. By the way, if the word they're thinking of has to do with sex, the correct description is "obscene". It's expressions with religious significance which are "profane", strictly speaking. Editors should know this.