Unpacking the OPUS Controversy

Special to Busted! by Tom Spurgeon

On August 26 and September 2, Pulitzer Prize-winning cartoonist Berkeley Breathed featured jokes in his Sunday-only Opus comic strip instigated by a character adopting radical Muslim behavior and dress. It briefly became a major story in the journalistic world because a portion of the strip’s clients, including the Post (Washington, D.C.), declined to run those installments.

Coverage of the incident drew connections from the editors’ decision not to run the strips to the hot-button issue of depicting elements of Muslim culture and religion in newspaper, particularly in cartoon form. The most famous recent incident was the appearance of multiple cartoons depicting the Prophet Muhammed that ran in a Danish newspaper in 2005, the protests of which the following year steamrolled into an significant International news story featuring boycotts, political denunciations, and protests that turned violent leading to over 100 deaths. A more recent incident involves the summer 2007 publication of a drawing depicting Muhammed as a dog in a Swedish newspaper.

And then there’s Opus, caught in a cultural moment without, at least in some of its client papers, the opportunity to comment on it to its audience. We spoke to Syndicate Editor Amy Lago of The Washington Post Writer’s Group about their view of the newspapers’ decision’s not to run the two strips and the general tightrope that cartoonists and their attending business must walk between serving their clients and fulfilling the mandates of free expression.

TOM SPURGEON: Amy, can you describe how the situation developed from your end? Had you thought there might be trouble? Did you talk to Mr. Breathed or send out a special warning to client papers?

AMY LAGO: We know that anytime religion is mentioned, any religion, it's a warning flag to readers. It's as if they become primed and ready to be offended.

One of the issues of concern was the depiction of a Muslim as rejecting western culture in three panels. As we know, not all Muslims reject Western culture. So we took pains to ensure it was clear that this was a radical -- not just "any" Muslim woman. And we ran it by a scholar who attested to its accuracy. Still, there is at least one Opus client that has trouble with any depictions of Muslims (and Arabs), and we assumed there would be others. And, of late, we've had complaints about the sexual content in Opus. So, given the two warning flags, we figured it would be best to send an alert and let the decision be made on the local level.

This is a fairly routine procedure nowadays. (It's probably one that I invented -- back when I was dealing with risque Dilbert strips -- but I'm certain I'll be disabused of the notion if I'm wrong.)

SPURGEON: Were you surprised by the number of papers that decided not to run that material? Were you disappointed?

LAGO: We honestly don't know how many ran/didn't run the material. I've no personal stake, so disappointment isn't really an issue for me. What was important to me was (1) vetting the material (doing my job as an editor for a national audience) and (2) serving our clients, and their local readerships, as best we could by both providing an alert and a substitute if needed.

SPURGEON: What do you think they objected to? Was there anything surprising in what was communicated back to you from the editors?

LAGO: Very few said what they objected to. The most surprising comment I got was on the second one (Sept. 2nd release), saying that it made fun of traditional Islamic dress. I didn't see it that way at all. I felt it was empowering. And the point -- criticizing U.S. foreign policy in the MidEast -- was one most Arabs and most Muslims would certainly agree with, no? I certainly didn't expect an editor to read it that way at all.

But some people seem to think that cartoonists only have one "level" of humor -- that the most superficial reading of a strip is what the cartoonist is saying. Far from it. Especially with Breathed.

SPURGEON: Were there any newspaper clients with whom you had give and take about the subject? Can you describe the concerns as they might have come up in one such conversation?

LAGO: There wasn't any give-and-take prior to publication. We mostly got feedback either saying "thanks for the heads-up," then saying either "we'll take the substitute" or "we're fine with the original." In one case we were told that the features editor was fine with it, but some other people weren't, so the paper took the sub. This is what editors do: get feedback and make judgment calls. The only time the "getting feedback" part bothers me is when it's solicited from people who don't read comics.

SPURGEON: Do you feel this is a hangover from the Danish Cartoons controversy of last year?

LAGO: Don't know; you'd have to ask the editors.

SPURGEON: Was that communicated back to you by any of the strip's clients?

LAGO: No.

SPURGEON: Describe your level of support for Mr. Breathed. Were you behind these strips from the beginning? Was he ever asked to consider changes? What kind of measuring stick do you use in terms of what the syndicate will back and what it won't back?

LAGO: I'd have told him if (and have told him when) I thought he was out of line. And we wouldn't have distributed it. I don't have a "measuring stick" -- it's a case-by-case basis, and some of it is based on knowledge of what individual clients will have problems with that the rest of the clients won't have problems with. Again, we're here to serve our clients, just as they are there to serve their communities.

SPURGEON: Are you worried about any of the potential free speech elements to this incident, that it might be harder to get certain kinds of satire into the marketplace?

LAGO: This isn't a "free speech" story, because the government wasn't involved. This is a business story. The only thing I'm worried about is our culture's sudden need to feel offended at everything -- to assume that someone is "against" you rather than "for" you and view such works in that light. And then to decide to take offense rather than to take time to ask, "What did you mean?"

I'm further worried about newspapers -- if you're not watching Comedy Central, especially programs like The Daily Show, then you're probably not going to understand satire. And without satire as a comedic device, comics become lackluster and unappealing to the young and smart readers that newspapers are always claiming they want to attract.

SPURGEON: What in general can you do as an editor to ensure that these kinds of expression can have a place in the market?

LAGO: I try to take a Miss Manners approach -- employ the golden rule, and always, always maintain your sense of humor