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 News from Around the Americas | July 2005 
Trudeau Defends 'Turd Blossom' Reference, Says Editing Strips Is 'Not Acceptable'
 Dave Astor - E&P
| | About a dozen newspapers have pulled or edited Tuesday's and Wednesday's "Doonesbury" comic strip. (Artist: Doonesbury) |
Why did Garry Trudeau use Karl Rove's "Turd Blossom" nickname in Tuesday and Wednesday's "Doonesbury" strips?
"Given that I'm writing for a general audience, I try not to use crude or vulgar language gratuitously," replied Trudeau, after E&P emailed him several questions this afternoon. "But in this case, I felt that [President] Bush's nickname for Rove was illuminating. 'Turd blossom' has so many connotations, none of them flattering. It's a small masterpiece of nastiness."
"Editors obviously have a responsibility to determine what's appropriate for inclusion in their papers," said the Universal Press Syndicate cartoonist. "The syndicate and I accept that from time to time individual editors may object to particular strips and decide to drop them. What's not acceptable to us, however, is for editors to alter the content of a strip and represent it as what I sent them. In most cases, changing the dialogue compromises its meaning or rhythm or humor. Sometimes, the strip no longer even makes sense. Who benefits from that? We'd prefer that an offending strip be dropped altogether."
In today's "Doonesbury" comic (which can be viewed above), an aide tells Bush: "Sir, we're still getting pretty beat up on the Rove revelations."
"We can't get traction on any other issue. It's just the leak thing 24-7!"
Bush responds: "Yeah, I know. Karl's sure been earnin' his nickname lately."
Aide: "Boy Genius? I'm not so sure, sir."
Bush then calls out to Rove: "Hey, Turd Blossom! Get in here!"
Does Trudeau think many newspaper editors and readers are aware that "Turd Blossom" is a real nickname for Bush's close advisor, not one made up by the cartoonist?
"My assumption was twofold - that many people already knew it, and that most others would infer it was real from the way I teed it up," said Trudeau. "I also felt that those in the latter group would be as tickled to learn of it as I was."
The cartoonist did say he was careful to limit himself to a couple of "Turd Blossom" mentions. "Twice seems enough for readers to enjoy," he observed. "I don't want to push my luck."
Trudeau, whose "Doonesbury" strip appears in about 1,400 newspapers, acknowledged that it can be difficult for editors to decide what language their comics readers will tolerate. He noted that "public mores are in constant are in constant flux." |
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