There was a ton of reader reaction to last week’s announcement in this column that Johnny Hart’s often-controversial B.C. comic strip will run only on Sundays. Most were not buying Associate Editor Jan Tuckwood’s rationale.
For example, Peter Reilly of West Palm Beach wrote that Mr. Hart “has been attacked in your letters to the editor by anti-Christian bigots who go berserk when they encounter the occasional Christian message. Do you really think anyone believes The Post is dropping the daily B.C. cartoon because it’s not funny? If it isn’t funny, why are you printing it on Sunday?” Each comic has its following, of course, with some readers hating the strips that others love. For the second consecutive week, however, a syndicated political cartoon by Paul Conrad has drawn an unusually passionate response. Last week, a reader questioned the decision to run his drawing criticizing the CIA. This time . . .
“Shameful and disgraceful are the most moderate terms I can use to describe Monday’s cartoon depicting Air Force One headed for the Trade Towers wrapped in the Constitution,” wrote James Collins of Jupiter. “To even think about using the image of this national tragedy to take a cheap political shot at President Bush because of his administration’s plan to use extraordinary measures to protect the citizens of this country is below contempt and the work of a sick person. For the Post’s editors to authorize its use is even worse. This marks a real low point in editorial judgment.”
The cartoon was “so outrageous and disrespectful that I had to write,” said Alan Hill of Wellington. “This kind of conduct shows no respect for our nation or for the innocent victims of this tragedy and is not in any way acceptable editorial journalism . . . There are many ways to present this political viewpoint without resorting to this totally disgusting and inappropriate presentation.”
Mr. Hill added another oft-heard criticism: that the paper’s political cartoons typically depict only anti-Republican and anti-Bush administration points of view. “However,” he said, “this particular political cartoon stood out in such a disturbing way.”
In John T. Pratt’s view, the paper and its own editorial cartoonist, Don Wright, “have a long history of running offensive and tasteless cartoons on the editorial page, but Monday’s offering of Air Force One crashing into the Constitution depicted as the WTC by a cartoonist whose name I can’t read takes the cake, hands down!” Mr. Pratt, of Hobe Sound, said “The due process and rights of our Constitution are for the protection of the citizens of this country and not for those who use our freedoms as an instrument of our destruction and the destruction of world order. What will it take, a mushroom cloud over one of our cities and a butcher’s bill in the hundreds of thousands?”
Mary McIntosh of Stuart was on the phone on Wednesday afternoon as I was returning to complete this column. “As a family who suffered a loss of a loved one there,” she said, “this was more than offensive; it’s absolutely heartbreaking.” She and others wanted an apology “for such absolutely awful taste.”
Editorial Page Editor Randy Schultz said the decision to use the drawing was not taken lightly.
“The cartoon was drawn by Paul Conrad, a three-time winner of the Pulitzer Prize who worked for the Los Angeles Times and now is strictly a syndicated cartoonist,” said Mr. Schultz. “We ran the cartoon because it is a powerful commentary on what Mr. Conrad believes to be government attempts to use the Sept. 11 attacks as an excuse to undercut constitutional protections on civil liberties. We understand the emotion behind the symbolism Mr. Conrad used and respect the opinions of those who take issue with the decision to run it.”
Sometimes readers get to have too much fun at the staff’s expense. One regular Listening Post caller probably is still chuckling after noting this gem of a topic in a speakers list last week: “Is your synagogue / chruch(sic) / Mosque non-prophet?”
