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August 7, 2002
Saratoga, California Since 1955 |
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Some complain that cartoon went too far
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Dale Bryant
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Over the years, Saratoga News cartoonist
Steven DeCinzo has annoyed, irritated and
infuriated readers. He's also made more than
a few of them laugh. But I can't remember a
cartoon that evoked more fury than the one we
ran last week on our Speak Out page.
The cartoon did what satire often does—took
a major national issue and tried to find the
absurdity in it by looking at it from the
perspective of a local story. Each week, our
editors send DeCinzo their news stories, and
from those stories he tries to find a
satirical angle for his cartoons.
Because of last-minute changes in page
sizing, the story about the new preschool at
Sacred Heart School was pulled and held for a
later issue. DeCinzo, not realizing the story
had been pulled, picked up on a line in the
story about parents dropping their children
off 20 feet from the door and watching them
while they are escorted inside.
For someone who practices the art of satire,
the temptation to comment on the painful
scandal of child molestation by a few priests
was irresistible.
But without the story about the preschool in
the same paper, it may have appeared as if
the cartoonist was simply choosing to depict
Sacred Heart because it is in Saratoga.
Considering the depth of emotion shown by
readers, I seriously doubt that having the
story in the paper as a point of reference
would have deflected any anger.
Frankly, when I approved the cartoon, I had
qualms. On the other hand, like it or not,
the issue of molestation by priests is a
major national issue, and we are very
reluctant to restrict commentary just because
it isn't comfortable.
Using the name "Sacred Heart" was not meant
to suggest in any way wrongdoing in that
church, and we apologize if it came across
that way. We did err badly in not
communicating among the newspaper staff that
the cartoon's point of reference was not
appearing in the paper last week.
The views expressed by DeCinzo are his own.
We run his cartoons on the opinion pages not
because they represent the position of this
newspaper, but because that's where opinions
belong. Of course, opinions from readers who
are outraged by the cartoon or who disagree
with our policy are welcome, and those
letters will run on these pages.
—Dale Bryant, Executive Editor
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