Tribune Protects Us For Our Own Good
By Sam Bakken in News on Mar 1, 2005 8:49PM
We say Booooooooooo! to the Chicago Tribune. As our friends at Gaper's Block mentioned yesterday, The Trib, along with three other papers, didn't run "The Boondocks" yesterday because in the strip one character says to another, "Bush got recorded admitting that he smoked weed," and another replied, "Maybe he smoked it to take the edge off the coke."
The Tribune didn't run today's strip either because a character is watching TV and a newscaster says, "Reportedly, a conversation in which President Bush admitted to smoking marijuana was recorded by Doug Wead." In the next panel the newscaster continues, "This just in. We just got two more revelations from Joe Blow and Petey Crack."
"Even in cartoons, you cannot state as a real-life fact something that is not true in real life," Geoff Brown, the Tribune's associate managing editor/features, told E&P. "This is not to say that cartoonists can't dream up conversations or situations to poke fun at a public figure -- that's satire. But when they inaccurately attribute to a public figure a real-life fact, quote, or action that never happened, then lampoon him or her for a fictional fact, quote, or action, that's unfair. Reports from reputable news sources about the president's taped conversation are careful not to state outright that he admitted drug use."
The Tribune ran old "Boondocks" strips in place of today's and yesterday's. Here's the Tribune's contact information if you want to complain.
Image via Boondocks.net