When the comics are no laughing matter

By Michelle McLellan and Bob Steele

The “B.C.” comic strip for Easter Sunday showed a menorah dissolving into a cross, an image that was likely to be offensive to many Jews. The strip took newspaper editors by surprise — they learned of the controversial content only after the Sunday comics pages had been printed.

One question for editors was whether to pull BC or risk offending some readers. The other question was how to explain the decision. Recognizing there are seldom universal answers to these questions, we asked three journalists to offer their perspectives on the comics controversy.

Putting controversy in context

By Kelly McBride

staff writer

The (Spokane) Spokesman-Review

When my editors decided to run the Easter morning installment of B.C., I got a chance to do my job.

Johnny Hart’s comic strip offered a modern-day glimpse into a centuries-old conflict between Christians and Jews. Context would help our readers — from true believers to atheists — be part of the discussion. As religion and ethics reporter, I could provide that context.

Our editors had decided to run the comic on principle. “Comics are a form of visual commentary that should not be edited to my taste or point of view,’’ Editor Chris Peck said.

Our story on the cover of the features section Easter morning explained that Hart’s personal views — that Christians have replaced Jews as God’s chosen people — have substantial implications. Universal among Christians until the 20th Century, replacement theology was ditched by the Roman Catholic Church and many Protestant denominations because scholars agreed the teaching contributed to the Holocaust. But many of the world’s Christians believe that Jews, along with everyone else who doesn’t believe that Jesus is God, are damned to hell.

Is that offensive to Jews? You bet it is and all readers deserve to know why. Is that belief central to Christianity? Absolutely and once again, our readers heard from Christians who do and don’t embrace this theology.

Religious claims to the truth create constant tension in our society. Good journalism gives us the opportunity to explore both the historical roots and the potential consequences of that tension.

To Pull or Not to Pull

By Frank Scandale

editor

The (Bergen) Record

It only took about 30 seconds for the wheels to start to rolling after our religion writer told us of concern about the B.C. strip for Easter Sunday.

We were convinced this was not appropriate for the funnies, especially during a Holy Week. We decided to write a story about the controversy and to publish a note to readers on Sunday explaining that while we found the comic strip to be potentially offensive to many religious groups, we could not pull it due to publishing deadlines.

I notified our corporate executives. Jonathan H. Markey, our company president, looked over the strip, heard our game plan and left. An hour later he said the company, cost notwithstanding, would set aside the color comics and reprint them without B.C.

We explained in a Page One note to readers on Saturday and Sunday, which followed a full story in our newspaper a day earlier. “The comics are intended for a broad viewing audience, including children, and should not present material that is highly controversial,” Markey said.

We told our readers we did not consider this censorship. We routinely use discretion in judging which features we use in different parts of the newspaper.

Readers responded heavily. More than 100 e-mails, faxes and phone calls came in, fairly split on our decision. I wrote a column that ran in our opinion section Sunday, accompanied by another dozen letters on the subject.

We take many lessons from this. Even a comic strip — a diversion to most of us — can touch off deep reaction among our readers. We can never please everyone. We must adhere to our standards and explain our reasoning.

Asking the big questions

By R.B. Brenner

senior editor

The San Diego Union-Tribune

I’m a news guy. Never had much time for the “funny pages.” Then two years ago I became the senior editor responsible for features.

It didn’t take long for me to learn the age-old lesson: We may not pay much mind to the comics, but a dedicated and vocal segment of our readership does.

For other parts of the paper, we spend countless hours discussing stories and photos in terms of ethics, values, diversity of viewpoints and how to balance our truth-telling obligations against community standards and sensibilities. But I can’t recall a time when we’ve looked at the comics in the same light.

My paper has a comics committee of editors and reporters that encompasses a fairly broad range of opinions about what’s funny and what’s in good taste.

“B.C.” had come up before. Some members voiced concern about what they saw as Johnny Hart’s didactic leanings and the potential to offend. We tip-toed around the larger discussions:

What’s the role of any comic strip? To entertain? To provoke? To promote a world view? Does our comics group itself have biases that frame decisions? For instance, are we too uptight about religious themes and maybe too liberal about depictions of other aspects of life?

On Easter Sunday, we ran the “B.C.” strip, along with a news story and an editor’s note in the main news section that acknowledged the views of those who felt it was offensive. In subsequent days, “B.C.” was a frequent topic — with a mix of opinions — in our Letters to the Editor columns.

We felt our options were limited. We could either publish “B.C.” or scrap all the comics that week. We have taken steps to improve our advance review of the comics to have more control over content decisions prior to printing.

To me, the lesson for editors is to have that broader conversation about the values and ethics of comics pages, allowing specific decisions to be weighed in an overall context. “B.C.” caught too many of us flat-footed because, I suspect, we didn’t take the funnies seriously enough.

The Credibility Conversation will be a regular feature of The American Editor this year. To contribute an essay or suggest a topic, please contact Michele McLellan at michelemclellan@news.oregonian.com or Bob Steele at steele@poynter.org. For more discussion of newspaper credibility, The Newspaper Credibility Handbook is now available from ASNE, http://www.asne.org/kiosk/reports/publist.htm.