By Michael Miner
Other papers reacted much more enthusiastically. For example, the Times Herald of Port Huron, Michigan, which had carried the strip only on Sundays, began running the daily strip as well. “Breast cancer–and prevention of it–needs to be discussed,” editor Patrick Rice explained in a letter to his paper’s readers. “I have seen advance copies of the strip, and believe it deftly handles the subject with thoughtfulness and, yes, good humor.”
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That was the Chicago Sun-Times. Unlike the Standard-Speaker, the Sun-Times didn’t print a word saying why. But some contributors to the chi.media news group who were quick to notice it had disappeared began asking questions on-line, and editor Nigel Wade stepped in to post an explanation:
“The thing about the breast cancer thread in Funky W. is that it was going to go on for about six months, without contributing any new insights to the subject. We pay a lot of attention in our news columns and health features to the topic of women’s health, notably cancer in its many forms, and we thought we didn’t need Funky’s help in that area. There’s been a trend among some cartoonists to tackle social, political and religious issues: very earnest but seldom original. We prefer cartoonists who stick to the task of trying to be funny. Funky’s story lines meandered all over the place and, in the end, he lost his way.”
“It’s the Sun-Times’s call,” Batiuk says. “It’s their newspaper. It’s their editorial decision.” But after reading the letter from Barron, he says, “I’ve never seen anything quite like that in terms of characterizing the work. And it’s a very one-sided case, in that readers never get to see the material. It’s like they really feel a need to justify their position.”
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Journalists have a different view of it. They see their calling as standing wholly outside the system, a splendid if capricious court of last resort to whom the desperate can turn when the process has failed them. Their motto is: We sometimes do wondrous things, but don’t count on it. If Porter had been executed on schedule, he would have died cursing the state, not all the reporters who didn’t get interested in his case. Presumably.
