Some newspapers pull `Doonesbury' installment that mentions masturbation

[plcdude]

http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/news/archive/2003/09/03/national1806EDT0734.DTL


naturally I couldn't pass this up for us to discuss.

[zekeson]

1. Hilarious

Trudeau said the comic "isn't really about masturbation or the cancer study as such, but about the shifting nature of taboos and the inability of two adults to have a certain kind of serious conversation."

[TrogL]

2. I didn't see it

and it's not on the website

What did it say? I read the study, but found it from another source.

[Wednesdays]

3. So, they pulled it?

They just yanked it off the page, eh?

[plcdude]

6. beats me

that's all I can say

[Zero Gravitas]

10. Only a real jerk would not print the strip.

[WillParkinson]

11. Oh cum off it!

Let's get a grip, OK? ;-)

[On the Road]

4. Do They Mean This COMING Sunday?

That would explain why nobody seems to have seen it yet.

[dofus]

5. Doonesbury is probably

the one comic most often pulled. You know Trudeau is doing something right when he offends people like that.

My favorite strip is the Guilty, guilty, guilty one back during Watergate. The staid Washington Post didn't print it.

[chaumont58]

7. Isn't than something

Masturbation is bad, but killing is just fine.

[zbdent]

8. Keep an eye on the papers that drop this yet printed

Madonna's kiss.

Hypocracy.

[WillParkinson]

9. My letter to the Journal

Dear Ms. Bacha,

I want to thank you for pulling the recent Doonesbury strip that discussed masturbation. I feel much safer knowing that I have someone out there who is willing to do my thinking for me and decide what I should see and hear.

And yes, that was sarcasm.

While it may be your job I do not appreciate people making decisions for me. If you think that someone may be offended by this cartoon then you'll have to do the same with any cartoon that may offend. Mallard Fillmore, for example. It consistently offends me so I think your paper should stop carrying it.

Please consider, in the future, that I am 39 years old. I already have a mom. I don't need another one.

Will Bowden


ON EDIT: Here is her reply:

Dear Mr. Parkinson:



Yup, I get the sarcasm. Point taken. Permit me to reply.



Your point of view was one we anticipated as we debated our decision. It was among many.



We keep many things in mind when we do our work as newspaper editors, and one of those things is taste. We're not doing our jobs if we don't ask ourselves to stop and think about material our readers might find objectionable -- on the comics page, and everywhere else in the newspaper. Those readers (like you) hold us accountable for this.



And those readers never agree with each other, so we can’t expect all of them to agree with us. There will never be a consensus about what sits inside and outside the boundaries of good taste, but nonetheless we’ve got to make some choices. We take into account context, the way the information is used, as many other factors when we make decisions like this.



We have published information and stories about masturbation before, and will likely do so in the future. But we decided that it was not in good taste in the "Doonesbury" context, in the Sunday comics section.



Thanks for reading the Journal Sentinel.