Today's edition of Garry Trudeau's "Doonesbury" doesn't pull any punches. It features a woman checking in at a clinic for her mandatory sonogram, in advance of an abortion. Another woman, behind the desk, hands the patient a clipboard and says, "[Y]ou'll need to fill out this form. Please take a seat in the Shaming Room.... A middle-aged, male state legislator will be with you in a moment."
The comic, clearly a response to recent Republican measures in Virginia, Texas, and elsewhere, is expected to be part of a week-long series. As it turns out, however, you may not find it in your local newspaper.
A national syndicate will offer replacement "Doonesbury" comic strips to newspapers that don't want to run a series that uses graphic imagery to lampoon a Texas law requiring women to have an ultrasound before an abortion, executives said Friday.
A handful of newspapers say they would not run this week's series, while several others said the strips would move from the comics to opinion pages or Web sites only.
The series will apparently be harder hitting as the week progresses, and will feature a physician who will read a script from Texas Gov. Rick Perry (R), welcoming the patient to a "compulsory transvaginal exam" against her wishes, as well as a middle-aged legislator who calls her a "slut."
The device used for the exam is described as a "10-inch shaming wand."
Portland's Oregonian is one of the papers that objected, and in a note to readers, the editors said Trudeau "went over the line of good taste and humor."
Editors and publishers clearly have their own decisions to make in these areas, but here's a radical thought: perhaps those offended by phrases such as "compulsory transvaginal exam" should be more concerned with the legislative proposals themselves, and less concerned with Trudeau satirizing the measures.
For his part, the "Doonesbury" creator chatted with the Washington Post about the controversy, and was asked his background on these issues. "Roe v. Wade was decided while I was still in school," Trudeau said. "Planned Parenthood was embraced by both parties. Contraception was on its way to being used by 99 percent of American women. I thought reproductive rights was a settled issue. Who knew we had turned into a nation of sluts?"
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Editors and publishers making those decisions... Thanks for giving me another reason not to regret cancelling my local newspaper subscription.
Yet another example of "censorship" by that supposedly "librul" corporate owned media......And yet they wonder "why" they're losing money.....Hahahahaha
Gee whiz, Howza 'bout Maddowblog getting permission to share the strips with its audience?
Re: John Mitchell: "That's Guilty! Guilty, guilty, guilty!"
Re: Ron Ziegler covering for Nixon: "To be responsive at this time, I will simply say, as I said before, and therefore this is a repeat of what I said previously, based upon information available to make no such statement."
Trudeau has long been a gem.
My local Scripps newspaper in Fl. decided to protect me from Doonesbury, thus keeping my morality intact and my brain from getting to choose whether to read it or not.
My local paper is not carrying it. Thanks for posting it.
My local paper (The Seattle Times) is carrying it. I find it interesting that politicians can rationalize 'the probe' by saying they are only doing it so WOMEN can have more 'information' but the newspapers that support them think it is too controversial and 'not in good taste or humor'...I guess the only information we can HAVE is what the GOP deems necessary.
I am surprised the Oregonian would sensor this and the Seattle Times would not.
I'm not. The Oregonian is owned by a Conservative, and let's face it, the age of polarization is upon us, fostered by media of all types.
I think that the strip is right on and as far as I'm concerned, I don't need the Oregonian doing my thinking for me. No, I am an adult able to think for myself. And THAT is the problem, and the REAL reason the Oregonian won't run it.
I suspect those objecting are mostly male. I support Trudeau's exposé of this travesty. We women do not need male legislators to serve as translators between us and our doctors, especially when so many of those legislators appear to be clueless about women's health issues.
Not carried in Iowa, surprise surprise...
Our eastern Iowa newspaper, which generally strikes a pretty fair balance between right and left, yesterday printed an article explaining their rationale for not carrying it. At least they did tell readers where they can find the strips online. Of course, that's 'librul' eastern Iowa. Out west they are probably planning public hangings of anyone suspected of reading Doonesbury.
What baffles me though is that they continue to print the garbage that Charles Krauthammer writes. The only saving grace is that they also print Leonard Pitts.
LA Times put in on the opinion page, which was weird, but at least it was published. I've loved Doonesbury for decades.
Thank you for posting that.
Yet another example of the misogynistic troglodytes shooting themselves in the foot, as in Limbaugh's "apology."
If they had just run the strip, without comment, they would have had a few Letters to the Editor crying "Harrumph, egad, Sir, have you no sense of decency?" and the whole kerfluffle would be over.
But, noooo. They has to poke yet another stick in the hornets nest, assuring that topic will live on, and more and more citizens will become aware.
You'd almost thing that Trudeau knew this would happen, eh?
So much for the first amendment.
In all seriousness, of course the newspapers have the right not to run this (just as we have the right to criticize them). But by Wingnut Logic, Trudeau has now had his First Amendment Right to Free Speech Without Any Consequences trampled on.
I think this is the wrong decision, and obnoxious, but I'm pretty sure that the First Amendment doesn't apply to privately-run newspapers. The first amendment prevents the government from shutting down newspapers, it doesn't mean that if you run a newspaper you are required to publish any speech that comes across your desk. You have full ability to censor anything and not publish it.
True
Evidence of this very same censorship is prevalent in our Southern States which is why they are still saying the President is a muslim. Why doesn't censorship work both ways?
Perhaps because all sins are not crimes and really don't need to be.
I think they should *all* have carried it. Although kids often read the comics, I doubt most ever read Doonsbury, and those that do rarely understand it anyway. If they're old enough to understand, they need to hear this anyway!
Kudos to Trudeau for once again pointing out the comic travesty currently known as the "legislative process" where elected representatives ignore their constituency in order to force their own religious agenda on their unsuspecting voters.
Thank you, Mr. Trudeau. I've been a fan for decades and this reminds me again just why I enjoy your work.
To paraphrase a quote that has appeared during all these shenanigans:
"Women bring every politician into the world; in 2012 we can also
takevote them out".When someone finds the paper that puts it on the front page, let me know. I will begin my subscription immediately.
Beware the GOP! Give them ten inches, they will take a mile.
They've pulled out their big 10 inch -------record.
I actually wondered why today's Doonesbury strip was so stupid. It's the replacement strip. Shame on the Detroit Free Press. And good for Trudeau for making the replacement so blatantly bland that it tipped me off that something was up.
Ijust sent the Free Press an email expressing my disappointment. Cowards.
The shame this Governor has brought to our Commonwealth is immeasurable. It sickens me.
I for one find it shocking that these conservative male state legislators have finally come into the possession of ANYTHING 10 inches long.
That was my thought, too. LOL
I don't know why they would think censorship would work in the 21st century of Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and Google+ ....
Who reads newspapers anyway ...?
Newspapers are good for your brain ;-)
READING is good for your brain ... I'm not sure that newspapers are, however ...
Well...OK fair point ;-)
The mindset of the tealiban is: Healthcare WILL pay for our viagra so we can make sure those women stay the sluts they are and produce the soldiers we need for our wars!
I don't read paper newspapers, but IIRC it's been quite some time since this last happened to Trudeau.
The Des Moines Register has declined to publish the Doonesbury "shaming wand" strips. Now lots of folks who might not have seen it in the paper will find it on-line. Why does the Register think this censorship is needed to protect reader's sensibilities when the laws being caricatured have already offended the sensibilities of women, and the men who love them, all over America? Abortion is a painful issue, with good people on both sides of the argument; but in our great country women have the right to choose without enduring punishment at the hands of legislators who don't agree with their choice.
Wish they would do away with Mallard Fillmore. That doesn't even qualify as satire.
To your point that abortion is a painful issue. It most certainly is, not only from the standpoint that everyone has an opinion on it, but that the decision itself is so completely painful to the individual woman who must make it. How can a man - ANY man - think that they can understand every woman's circumstances, spirituality, needs, etc. and therefore make a better decision than the woman herself can? The mere premise is absurd. This is exactly why a woman's right to choose must remain so.
And I am a middle-aged white male.
It is a painful subject. And by sugar-coating the reality, by letting the "forced labor" side pretend it's all about lazy sluts who want to terminate their inconveniences at 8-plus months, they're leaning pretty heavily on the public discussion.
I created a petition for the AMA to come out against the unnecessary medical procedures in the war on women. Please sign and pass on!
http://www.change.org/petitions/american-medical-association-ama-needs-to-stand-up-against-laws-requiring-unnecessary-medical-procedures#
The Des Moines Register has refused to run the Doonesbury "shaming wand" strips. Why would they be timid about offending the sensibilities of their readers when the laws being caricatured have already offended the sensibilities of women, and the men who love them, all over America? Abortion is a painful issue, and there are good people on both sides of the argument; but in this huge, religiously diverse country, women have the right to choose without being subjected to punishment from lawmaker who disagree with them.
oh look it worked no one read this and the world can now go back to the stone age because its where the gop is stuck
The Oregonian has been an embarrassment for years, unworthy of Oregon's enlightened populace. Register your complaint with Features Editor Jolene Krawczak: jkrawczak@oregonian.com