McClatchy editor says conservative-leaning cartoon won't get dropped after all

The hand-wringing is over -- McClatchy's News & Observer has declared conservative-leaning cartoon Mallard Fillmore can stay at the N&O.

The N&O had been bombarded with complaints from Obama supporters who were upset that the Mallard Fillmore cartoon had been bashing Barack Obama. The newspaper had been undergoing a weeks-long "review" about whether to move the cartoon to the editorial page or dump it. The N&O's public editor Ted Vaden weighed in several weeks ago, and recommended the paper cancel Mallard Fillmore altogether. (How's that for a ringing endorsement of free speech?)

John Drescher's announcement that Mallard Fillmore will stay on the N&O cartoon page came Saturday. (But don't get exited that the N&O took a principled stand for free speech -- Drescher says the decision to keep Mallard Fillmore was based on a survey that showed Mallard Fillmore was one of the most popular comic strips among subscribers.)

Just for fun, below is a Mallard Fillmore cartoon that ran last week. (Click to enlarge.)


Hat tip: Gearino

Previous:

• McClatchy public editor wants to cancel cartoon strip due to anti-Obama overtones

.
.
.

Editor says John Edwards begged him a year ago not to report on scandal... "my sick wife Elizabeth reads your paper every morning"

The News & Observer, the hometown newspaper of John Edwards, has come under heavy fire for tip-toeing around the Edwards/Hunter scandal for months. Now we have a possible explanation: John Drescher, executive editor of the News & Observer, says John Edwards telephoned him last October and denied the affair, then asked him not to report on it due to his wife's illness.

Here is Drescher explaining the call from John Edwards last October, just after the National Enquirer first reported Edwards was having an affair.

"By the time Edwards called, we had decided not to publish the story in the Friday paper. But Edwards didn't know that. I wanted to hear what he had to say. We still could have reversed our decision.

"Edwards told me that the allegations were not true.

"He said The N&O was the paper that arrived on his doorstep every day, the one read by friends of him and his wife, Elizabeth.

"He said he'd never called before to complain or state his case. Given Elizabeth's health -- she has cancer -- he said it was especially important to him that the story not run in The N&O."

John Edwards had the gall to ask the News & Observer not to report on the scandal out of concern for his wife's illness -- even though he is the scoundrel who cheated on his sick wife in the first place. What a low life Edwards is. But the N&O has egg on its face. Big time. Drescher lays out the investigation his paper did on the Edwards scandal despite the phone call, but the paper's investigation looks half-hearted. The News & Observer got played by the slick-talking Democrat lawyer.