Some papers pull, edit 'Doonesbury'

KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- About a dozen newspapers have objected to use of toilet humor in Tuesday's and Wednesday's "Doonesbury" comic strip, and some either pulled or edited the strip.

Kansas City-based Universal Press Syndicate, which distributes the strip to around 1,400 newspapers, said it had re-ceived some complaints from editors about a caricature of President Bush referring to presidential aide Karl Rove as "turd blossom."

Lee Salem, editor at Universal Press, said the complaints weren't unexpected, given the concerns many editors have about language in the funny papers. But as opposed to other times when editors have objected to Doonesbury content, the syndicate did not send out replacement strips.

"Given the coverage of Karl Rove, we thought it was appropriate, especially given the history of the strip," Salem said.

Among those with concerns was The Providence Journal in Providence, R.I. There, editors simply removed the offensive word from the strip's final panel.

"I don't think 'turd' was going in the paper," said executive editor Joel Rawson. "I didn't think (taking out the word) hurt it. I would prefer to run the strip and if we can edit it, that's fine."

Rawson said the paper would take the same approach with Wednesday's strip.