Since I started this job, a few friends have asked me about its most difficult aspect.
Is it the harsh e-mails and phone calls from some readers? No. They aren’t pleasant, but they’re counterbalanced by the readers who send in words of encouragement.
Is it potential anger from the folks in the newsroom? No, they’ve been generally understanding, although it wouldn’t surprise me if I walked into a local bar and found my picture on the dartboard.
No, the toughest part of this job so far has been dealing with matters of taste. The difficulty lies in getting readers to discern incontrovertible facts from individual preferences.
This issue came to mind in the past week as I received a number of complaints about “The Boondocks,” a comic strip by Aaron McGruder that’s politically edgy and often controversial. The complaints centered around a series of McGruder strips last week on the death of Strom Thurmond.
A little background on McGruder for those unfamiliar with his work: He’s a young African-American cartoonist who has been described as everything from genius to racist. “The Boondocks,” according to a blurb on ucomics.com, which is run by the comic strip’s distributor, Universal Press Syndicate, “reflects the racial diversity and complexity of our world.” It is highly popular in some circles and highly reviled in others.
In one strip last week, the lead character, Huey Freeman, reflected on how beautiful the weather had been since Thurmond’s death. Another depicted Huey’s grandfather as unsure whether it was Thurmond or Ronald Reagan who addressed him in a demeaning manner. In a third, Huey says, “… there’s a powerful message for all of us to learn in the long life of Strom Thurmond … that you can really, really, really, really, really hate black people … and it’s basically OK with everyone.”
Strong stuff, no doubt. Too strong, it seems, for a number of readers who chastised The Bee for running what they saw as series of blatantly racist diatribes. Many questioned the paper’s standards, and said The Bee was wrong to publish McGruder’s comics.
Before I comment on that, here’s some background on how The Bee chooses its cartoons. Each Friday, Pam Dinsmore, the assistant managing editor in charge of features, receives and reviews strips for the coming week. If she believes there’s one that borders on the offensive, she’ll bring it to the attention of the executive editor, Rick Rodriguez.
“My basic philosophy,” Rodriguez said, “is to let most comics run, even though some might make me, as well as some readers, cringe.
“I think we are no longer in an age where edgy comics only belong on editorial pages. When you think about comedy today, much of it has political overtones or is about an issue in the news. ‘The Boondocks’ sometimes pushes to the limit, but it has a strong following.”
The editorial page cartoons are more of a hands-on process. The editorial page editor, David Holwerk, works directly with Rex Babin — also a frequent target of critics — on ideas. Babin drafts a number of possibilities for his cartoons, and he and Holwerk confer on the final product. Those discussions include matters of taste. It is Holwerk’s decision on whether to withhold a Babin cartoon and he’s never done so.
Does this essentially mean that which comics The Bee publishes comes down to the individual tastes of a few editors? Rodriguez said a consensus of staff, national polls and “an occasional unscientific local reader poll” is the basis for decisions on which comics to run.
That explains which strips to buy from syndicates for publication in The Bee. But the larger issue of what constitutes offensiveness or poor taste is considerably more complicated.
Some readers suggested that the way to deal with a controversial strip like McGruder’s is to keep it out of the paper. That isn’t unheard of — some newspapers have on given days withheld politically charged comic strips like “The Boondocks” and “Doonesbury” when editors felt they were offensive or insensitive.
I can’t agree with that. It’s a wishy-washy policy. If a newspaper commits to running anything potentially controversial — whether it’s a comic strip, a columnist or an editorial — on a regular basis, it should stick with it and stand up to the backlash. Otherwise, cancel the strip entirely or don’t buy it in the first place. Editors are charged with making tough decisions, frequently unpopular ones. Comics are no exception.
This is not an issue that’s isolated to a few Aaron McGruder comic strips. Sacramento is a booming region — the Census Bureau projects that the population around here will grow by 73 percent by 2020, compared with 1995. Those newcomers will bring a wide range of tastes and opinions. Some will push up against the boundaries of what is now considered socially acceptable or proper. The Bee, or any other newspaper, must document and accurately reflect the changes in those boundaries, even on the funny pages.
If that’s too hard to take, my advice is to be more selective about what you read in The Bee. I used to read comics like Beetle Bailey and Blondie until I realized I was reading variations of the same jokes over and over again, so I’ve directed my attention elsewhere. But I’m sure there are no shortage of readers who still laugh out loud at those strips, and The Bee should continue to serve them.
I know the argument there: They aren’t offensive. That’s true. But if The Bee backs off on content that might get your back up, it will become as bland as a bucket of mayonnaise. Pass the mustard.
