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WaPo Explains Opus Ban
Not "defends", just "explains". Edited for length; the original reads like she was required to write a 1,000 word essay, and came up with 980 words.Readers were confused and angry that "Opus" comic strips with a Muslim theme did not appear in the Aug. 26 and Sept. 2 Sunday print editions. The strips, created by Berkeley Breathed, were distributed by the Washington Post Writers Group and published on washingtonpost.com. Most of the controversy involved the Aug. 26 strip, which showed regular character and spiritual seeker Lola Granola in her version of a burqa, declaring that she has become a "radical Islamist. Hot new fad on the planet." Executive Editor Len Downie decided to kill the strip because he felt the language and depiction of Muslim female dress could be offensive. He consulted with other editors, one of whom talked to a Muslim staff member, who believed the strip was problematic. Comics have long featured social commentary; think back to "Pogo" and "Li'l Abner." And comics have been killed before in The Post. "The Boondocks," a black-oriented strip no longer being drawn, was dropped several times. Editors killed episodes of the old comic strip "B.C." that they found anti-Semitic, Downie said. "We keep things out of the paper every day that we think are inappropriate Many of the 100 or so readers who complained accused The Post of being afraid of Muslims and said that it was unfair to "censor" an "Opus" strip on Muslims when a crack had been made in an earlier strip about the late Jerry Falwell, a conservative Christian leader. Falwell, however, was a public figure and fair game The Sept. 2 "Opus" strip featured Steve Dallas wanting Lola Granola to go to the beach in a bikini. Instead she wears a Burkini, modest Muslim swimwear designed and sold by Ahiida Ltd., a company in Sydney. Aheda Zanetti, owner and designer, wears the veil and said she "just loved" the strips. The Sept. 2 strip mentioned her Web site, which prompted some hate mail, Zanetti said The reasons that strip wasn't published are murky. Downie said he did not kill it. Other editors thought that the Writers Group thought it would be hard to understand without seeing the first strip. Alan Shearer, Writers Group editorial director, said he made that point but did not want either strip killed. About 25 of the 200 "Opus" clients told Shearer they would not run the first strip. Old strips were sent as alternatives. Many ran the second strip. Most papers ran both, Shearer said, including the Chicago Tribune, the Oregonian, the Los Angeles Times and the Baltimore Sun. A check with editors showed that only the Sun and the Tribune got complaints -- one each. Two complaints from 175 newspapers that ran the strip, versus 100 complaints from WaPo readers. And apparently, no death threats. Yet. Ibrahim Hooper, spokesman for the Council on American-Islamic Relations, a civil rights and advocacy group, wasn't offended. " 'Opus' poked fun at the strip's characters, not Muslims or Islam. I see hundreds worse on the Internet every day," he said. Akbar Ahmed, chair of Islamic studies at American University, also wasn't offended. He said there is a strong Muslim tradition of satire and self-deprecation. "I think there is a danger of us becoming so politically correct that we end up by blunting the critics' bent and the satirists' wit. Muslims need to be sensitive to the fact that in Western culture there is a healthy tradition of not taking things too seriously." Breathed didn't want to talk about it, because, he wrote, "Subtlety has never been my hallmark. Cartoons only work UNPARSED. Unexamined. Un-deconstructed. Two weeks ago the 'Today Show' spent 10 minutes doing exactly that with the 'Opus' Muslim strips, and it was like watching someone try to iron wet toilet paper." I think Post editors overreacted in killing the strips. Comics are meant to be artful, fun and provocative. The two strips were all of that and worth publishing. Let comics be comics. P.S. Love that penguin! Posted by: Bobby 2007-09-17 |
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