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February 18, 2006
Gary Gnu Rolls In His Grave
Today Scott Stantis bites the hand that feeds him. Heck, he doesn't just bite it - he tries to rip off the whole arm.
It's a follow up to yesterday's strip, where Winslow asked for the removal of the controversial Marmaduke. He's heard back from the editor of the newspaper, who begs Winslow to keep reading (although Winslow never threatened to stop his subscription) and proceeds to bash his own newspaper industry. You see newspapers are written to be bland and simple to read and without strong opinions, much the same way they were written in 1975.
But why stop at 1975? Hell, newspapers are basically written the same way they were in 1875. Why? Because they exist to get out the news to the general public. The purpose of a newspaper is right in the title - it's NEWS written on PAPER. In today's MTV age it's a common argument - who needs newspapers when we've got cable news? Well, maybe because newspapers still try to adhere to a simple principle: deliver the facts to the public. Granted, there are some sections - like the comics section, or the editorial page, that exist to offer entertainment. I should probably reiterate that for someone as simple as Scott Stantis: OPINIONS are for the EDITORIAL page. Unlike a Fox News, which inserts opinions and bias in their general newscast (oh, he was "peppered," not "shot in the face"), most newspapers strive to keep the opinions and entertainment in their own sections - away from the factual, unbiased news stories.
I never thought I'd have to defend newspapers on a blog. Most of the newspaper reading I do is from their online postings. Sure, their stories are written for the unintelligent that also read Prickly City. That's by design, Stantis: not everybody is as witty as you claim to be. People want the basic info: who, what, when, where, and why (if you know). And not everybody understands the big words that you avoid as well.
Maybe Stantis wants his news with opinion. Maybe he wants to be spoon-fed what his opinions should be in their news stories. And why are the big newspapers losing subscribers? For one thing television does offer round the clock information - but unfortunately they're biased towards the conservative angle more and more every day. Another reason is because certain papers were the biggest cheerleaders for invading Iraq, which we now know was because they were afraid to find the real facts and were content to report the administration's lies. And the internet is growing by leaps and bounds - but there are too many people (like yourself, Scooter) that seem to confuse editorials with news. But hey, if you want your news as it's written by the government feel free - but I'll take an inky, messy newspaper that keeps the opinions on the opinion page and the funny comics (and yours) on the funny pages page.
Odds are Stantis is still hurting because some newspapers yanked his comic when he lied about what Ted Kennedy said and then thought it was humorous to make fun of the Terri Schiavo case. Winslow's letter to the editor is very similar to the one written to the editor of the Sacramento Bee. However in that case the reader wasn't offended by the strip - he pointed out that Stantis has a tendency to be factually wrong. Gee, Stantis getting his facts wrong? Next you'll be telling me there are no coyotes in Alaska.
Comments
Actually, in the Ted Kennedy quote thing, the strip's editor at the syndicate added the quote marks themselves without Scotty's approval, even though it wasn't there in the original. It was later confirmed.
Posted by: Charles Brubaker at February 18, 2006 09:20 AM
The quote excuse is a weak one considering the context. Carmen says, "Did you hear what Ted Kennedy said during the Condoleezza Rice confirmation? They lied and people died." The implication is obvious - it doesn't matter if they put in quotes or not, it's meant to infer that's what Kennedy said. Stantis didn't say, "Ted Kennedy said something to the effect of" or "Ted Kennedy said something like."
Posted by: The Furnace at February 18, 2006 10:08 AM
Yeah, but Kennedy said something like that.
Give him a break. Comics arn't supposed to be wordy to include ALL details, including whether the "quote" was "something like that" or "this is what he exactly said", and a room to include the actual quote. If only the syndicates didn't add the quote marks, it wouldn't be so bad.
Posted by: Charles Brubaker at February 18, 2006 11:58 AM
Okay, here's a snippet from an E&P article about Chicago Tribune dropping that strip
[Stantis said he knew "They lied and people died" wasn't a direct quote from Kennedy. The cartoonist condensed and paraphrased what Kennedy had said into those five words, and didn't put them in quote marks before sending the strip to Universal. The syndicate, according to Stantis, inserted the quote marks."]
Posted by: Charles Brubaker at February 18, 2006 12:02 PM
I'll take newspapers written in 1975. That was the heyday of investigative journalism, shortly after a corrups government was brought down by solid shoe-leather reporting. Now, we have newspapers that are so sold on balance and fairness that they are afraid to do anything that would upset the appearance of it. Scott Stantis should thank his lucky stars that newspapers are not run as they were in 1975, because only the modern scaredy-cat editor would say, "Gee, this comic strip isn't very funny, but it's conservative, and we need something to balance the liberal Boondocks and Doonesbury. I know, I know, it would be better if it were funny, but we can't possibly give the space to a talented cartoonist, because then we would be perceived to have bias!"
Modern newspapers are seriously ill, and Prickly City is a symptom.
Posted by: Annie at February 18, 2006 12:07 PM
