In a recent tweet, “Non Sequitur” creator Wiley Miller boasts that some sharp-eyed readers noticed the “little Easter egg” he snuck into Sunday’s comic strip.
Those sharp-eyed readers may have also noticed the syndicated comic is now absent from a few newspapers around the country, including the Independent Record, as a result of this little trick.
Sunday’s strip featured a character named Leonardo Bear Vinci and included a vulgar message hidden in the bottom right corner: “We fondly say go f*** yourself to Trump.”
Andrews McMeel Syndication later apologized for distributing the comic, noting “we are sorry we missed the language in our editing process.”
“If we had discovered it, we would not have distributed the cartoon without it being removed. We apologize to Non Sequitur’s clients and readers for our oversight,” a statement from the company says.
Here at the Independent Record, we also want to apologize for allowing this to slip by undetected. We are responsible for what ends up in our newspaper, and we are severing ties with “Non Sequitur” to ensure this doesn’t happen again.
While we generally try to avoid publishing profanity in the newspaper, the problem is not the opinion itself. The problem is that the cartoonist intentionally deceived hundreds of paying customers and their readers by disguising his message to get it published.
We know many of our readers have enjoyed "Non Sequitur," and we are sad it had to end this way.
We just can't use content providers we can't trust, and we hope our readers will enjoy seeing some new material on the comics pages.
Thanks for your understanding.
Jesse Chaney is the editor of the Independent Record. You can reach him at editor@helenair.com or 447-4074.
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Imagine if back in the day a comic had dared do that with Barrack Hussein and Michael. Keep on hating the President, you're only ensuring another 6 years.
Dean Cauley said "Keep on hating the President, you're only ensuring another 6 years."
How does that work?
We saw Obama targeted ande he got a second term.
Now you can bring back a good strip like Hagar the Horrible instead.
I always get a chuckle when today's news source, particularly ones with a web presence like the HelenaIR, try to maintain a holier-than-thou high road of journalistic integrity when their web sites are littered with clickbait posing as news stories. Many of these posers tease for clicks with what can only be described as promises of engagement in issues of moral turpitude. It is also not uncommon for these destination to use language that the HIR finds so offensive in the subject comic strip.
As long as the HIR smears its own reputation by offering clickbait as equals to its own journalism, we'll take their grandstanding move to protect us from vile comics with that grain of salt.
Spot on...
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