'Dilbert' comic cut in light of its creator's racist words

Mar. 1—By now, most have heard of the controversy surrounding Scott Adams, the creator of the popular "Dilbert" comic strip.

Adams made some blatantly racist comments on YouTube, which resulted in newspapers across the nation making the decision to drop "Dilbert" from their comics pages.

A similar debate took place this week at the Lewiston Tribune and Moscow-Pullman Daily News. It may come as some surprise that our lead editors were split on whether to follow the course of newspapers across the nation and drop "Dilbert."

The debate split along two lines: The media must defend free speech, even if the statements made are abhorrent. The counter argument is that racism and racist statements cannot be supported and cutting the comic is "the right thing to do."

Some of our readers also weighed in, with roughly equal numbers saying they would cancel their subscription to our papers if we continued to run "Dilbert," or they would cancel us if we dropped the cartoon.

As it turns out, the decision was taken out of our hands. The syndicate that distributes the comic strip, Andrews McMeel Universal, decided to sever ties with Adams. To date, no other syndicate has agreed to pick up Adams' work.

"As a media and communications company, AMU values free speech. We are proud to promote and share many different voices and perspectives. But we will never support any commentary rooted in discrimination or hate. Recent comments by Scott Adams regarding race and race relations do not align with our core values as a company," according to a statement by Andrews McMeel Universal Chairperson Hugh Andrews, and CEO and President Andy Sareyan.

Starting today, the daily comics page in the Tribune and Daily News will have white space where "Dilbert" would normally appear. That will remain until we select a new comic to run in its place. However, the same isn't true of the Saturday weekend edition of comics in the Daily News and the Sunday comics section in the Tribune.

We receive the color comics and print those sections a couple weeks in advance of their running, which in this case has "Dilbert" appearing through the Saturday, March 18, weekend edition of the Daily News and the March 19 Sunday edition of the Tribune.

The goal in the next few days is to select a new comic strip. In the meantime, thanks for your patience and also thank you to those who took the time to share their views on whether to keep or scrap "Dilbert."

Clohessy is managing editor of the Lewiston Tribune and the Moscow-Pullman Daily News. He can be reached at cclohessy@lmtribune.com or (208) 848-2251.