Doonesbury: Too much for The Oregonian, Day 4

Well-intentioned online petitions notwithstanding, The Oregonian is unlikely to reverse its decision to pull this week's Doonesbury strips, satirizing the hostility of the state of Texas (and several other states) to the notion that women should have control of their own reproductive health care, as well as access to the same insurance coverage that men receive.

Of course, online petitions weren't likely to succeed in this case, anyway; the O has historically had a somewhat shaky relationship to All Things Internet.

Since Portland's only daily is now referring readers to that Internet thingy for their daily dose of Doonesbury anyway, p3 is proud to help them offload readership by providing the link to today's strip.

Yesterday we mentioned the trouble that strip author Garry Trudeau got into with a fanciful 1980 arc called “Reagan's Brain.” But more often he's gotten heat from newspapers editors and critics (when those aren't the same) for telling things that are, in fact, true. Case in point: Back in 1973, Walden University campus activist and WBBY radio host “Megaphone” Mark Slackmeyer drew the wrath of many Nixon fans with this now-legendary entry in his “Watergate Profile” series. (And, for the record, young Mark was right; the pipe-smoking felon in question went on to spend 19 months in prison for his Watergate-related crimes.)

And, in an interview, strip creator Garry Trudeau says frankly that dodging the topic would be ”comedy malpractice.”