meta-roj

a while ago we got the news that doonesbury was being dropped by a group of newspapers. i was curious about that, and eventually found this:

Continental: Complaints Led to Drop-‘Doonesbury’ Poll [editor & publisher, july 21, 2004]

[Continental Features President Van] Wilkerson said he conducted the survey because Garry Trudeau’s comic “created more controversy than other strips.” In the poll e-mail he sent Continental’s newspaper clients this spring, Wilkerson wrote: “(I)t is my feeling that a change in one of the features is required. I have fielded numerous complaints about ‘Doonesbury’ in the past and feel it is time to drop this feature and add another in its place. … If the majority of the group favors a replacement, you will be expected to accept that change.”

Of the 38 papers that run the Continental-produced Sunday comics section, 21 wanted to drop “Doonesbury,” 15 wanted to keep it, and two had no opinion or preference. “I wouldn’t call the vote [to drop ‘Doonesbury’] overwhelming, but it was a majority opinion,” Wilkerson said.

there we have a good statement to hang this comment on: you will be expected to accept that change.

i like the democratic process, but here we have one of the threats exposed, and it is a huge threat as we work competition out of the media industry: the tyranny of the majority.

wrapping this decision in a poll gives wilkerson political cover (he didn’t decide to axe doonesbury – in fact, he has doesn’t “have an opinion about ‘Doonesbury’ one way or another.”) no personal responsibility or accountabilit required. the papers voted. we’re just doing what they asked us to do.