‘Doonesbury’ moves to Op-Ed page this week

The Times has moved this week’s “Doonesbury” comic strip to the Op-Ed page, and “Doonesbury” reruns will run in the strip’s place on the Comics page.

Editors were concerned about this week’s story line, which takes on a Texas law requiring women seeking an abortion to first undergo an ultrasound.

In one panel, artist Garry Trudeau depicts a young woman being confronted by a “middle-aged male state legislator” who asks her, “Do your parents know you’re a slut?”

In another, in which the woman is about to undergo the required transvaginal ultrasound, the doctor describes the ultrasound probe as a “10-inch shaming wand” and refers to the procedure as a rape.

“We felt the story line was a little over the top for a comics page,” Times Assistant Managing Editor Alice Short said.

According to the Associated Press, several other newspapers, including the Kansas City Star, and the Gainesville Sun and Ocala Banner in Florida, also opted to run replacement strips. The Pocono Record in Pennsylvania told AP that it would move the strips to the op-ed page for the week.

The company that syndicates "Doonesbury," Universal UClick, expected as many as 20 to 30 of the 1,440 newspapers that run "Doonesbury" to opt out, AP reported.

--Deirdre Edgar

Image: Monday's "Doonesbury" comic strip. Credit: GoComics

Comments

[Fiamma]

The strip is not 'over the top'.

The LAW is a slap in the face to women delivered by whack jobs that got elected to political office. Someone needs to point out the craziness of this legislation and who better to do so.

What's the WHO's definition of rape again? Compare that to the Texas law. These 'men' make me sick to my stomach with their sanctimonious bleating. Get out of my health care.

[Steve]

Not just Texas. Virginia now has a similar law, though the governor forced a watering down of the original bill, which called for a vaginal ultrasound vs. one outside the body. The idea, of course, is not women's health (which no right-thinking legislator wants to finance) but an attempt to force the women to realize what they are terminating.

[Lawrence King]

From my personal dictionary of American Usage: Lamestream Media = LA Times

[Steve Ferrera]

Kudos to The Times for running it and not opting out.

[Tom Cagan]

I am displeased with the Times / Tribune (lack of) management for moving the Trudeau strip from the Comics section of the paper. The information portrayed in the Trudeau strip is something that young, as well as not so young should become familiar with. The times spends too much time on the trials and tribulations of entertainment figures and not enough thought into the things that we need to concern ourselves with. Religion interfering with a Woman's own corporate entity is some thing every one should be made aware of. The American Taliban are at work and attempting to place American Women back into the 16th century. They must be stopped. The only way to stop them is to have an informed community. Trudeau is providing some of that awareness via his Doonesbury Strip.
I am a subscriber of the LA Times at my home.

[Jeannie]

Putting Doonesbury on the Op-Ed page was smart! Garry Trudeau is a creative genius, and his topics are always current. I never miss reading the Op-Ed pages, but I might have missed this chapter of Doonesbury if it hadn't been moved to Op-Ed.

[GMK]

Great way to get me to read it! I wouldn't have even been interested if you hadn't called to my attention!

[Jake]

The LA Times has a narrow and reductive idea of what comics are and should be. Comics have often been a way of challenging people; not all are insipid. Throughout Doonesbury's long run, Trudeau has often put ideas at the center of his comics. That the LA Times would move Trudeau to the editorial page for raising this issue in 2012 says more about how timid the press has become, and how fearful the LA Times is about offending the far right. The comic probably got more attention because of these timid efforts to hide it, however, which I am glad to see.