Free Speech, Poor Judgment

DAN QUAYLE has a drug record. The Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) investigated him while he was a U.S. Senator, finding him innocent. In 1988, members of President Bush's campaign hid the fact that Quayle had a DEA file from the then-vice president while he was considering Quayle as a running mate. The file still exists but is not available for public perusal and, indeed, its very existence is covered up by the government.

Such charges may seem fantastic, the sort of misinformation one typically finds only in The National Enquirer. Currently, however, those charges are being made in the pages of about 1400 respected newspapers nationwide--in the comic pages. The man making the accusation is Garry Trudeau, a noted cartoonist, and the vessel is "Doonesbury," Trudeau's famous (or infamous) comic strip.

For decades, Trudeau has poked fun at presidents, policy, and pop culture, all the while raising eyebrows and sometimes loud objections from readers. In fact, the strip has been so hard-hitting that about 30 percent of the papers that carry it do not run it in the comic section, but on another page, usually with the editorials.

TRUDEAU'S LATEST three-week series, which began November 11 and will end November 30, has news reporter Rick Redfern investigating a tip from a DEA employee about Quayle's file. His efforts lead him to discover that the government has been covering up the file and suppressing those who have any knowledge of its existence or of Quayle's past drug use.

When possibly scandalous news concerning a public official comes to light, controversy is all but inevitable. When the charges are made without any evidence proving them correct, but simply based on the lack of evidence conclusively proving them false (as is the case with the current Doonesbury) such controversy is bound to be inflamed.

Judging from the reactions on the part of newspaper editors and readers, the controversy is definitely heated. The Boston Globe has been prefacing the cartoon with an editor's note claiming that "News organizations also looked into the allegations and found them to be unproven ... [however] it nonetheless contains no information about the investigation that could be determined to be factually inaccurate." About 20 or 25 papers stopped running the strip for the duration of the Quayle sequence and three canceled the strip permanently.

Reader reaction has been strong, as well: "This is garbage, not comics," wrote one Globe reader. Another added, "The Globe is digging very low by running this so-called 'comic.'" A number of noted columnists have also decried the sequence or the editors who allowed it to be published.

The readers have a reasonable complaint, even in the eyes of this die-hard Doonesbury fan. The fact that no evidence exists to disprove what Trudeau is saying does not necessarily justify his viewpoint. The drug charges to which he refers have been investigated by numerous sources and found to be unproven.

It is safe to say that no other comic strip has prompted as many comments from celebrities, politicians and other American public personages, or for that matter typical comic strip readers, as has Doonesbury. This bespeaks both the number of people who read Doonesbury and, more importantly, the influence the strip has.

Any strip which can draw comments from notables ranging from President Bush to Donald Trump must be a major part of American political and social commentary. While this means that Trudeau has garnered the respect (or if not respect, at least interest) of many, it also means that he has a responsibility to be fair.

FAIR DOES NOT MEAN NICE or complimentary, or even unbiased. What it does mean, however, is true to the facts. Trudeau often targets people's foibles in his strip, and that's part of what makes Doonesbury so interesting. But the fact remains that such attacks are generally based on the truth or conventional opinion: Trump is obscene when it comes to conspicuous consumption; Bush has used his absurd "points of light" program as a way of avoiding direct governmental confrontation with domestic problems.

In the case of the current strip, though, the charges which Doonesbury makes have been discredited by numerous agencies. By throwing such accusations around, Trudeau is not only undermining his own reputation as a biting but fair satirist, but is also taking advantage of the influence Doonesbury has on American society.

DOONESBURY is one of the top comic strips in newspapers today, due in large part to the fact that it pulls no punches in satirizing public figures. In relying on rumor rather than proven fact, however, Trudeau is hitting below the belt, stooping to the level of slur and innuendo rather than poignant satire.

For the rather obvious reasons of free speech, the strip should not be censored by newspaper editors, as some readers and columnists have demanded. Trudeau himself should have nixed the subject while it was still in the idea stage. Doonesbury has always been a controversial strip, and that's great--controversy stirs things up and makes people think--but Trudeau should stick to the facts.

Someone who has risen as high as Trudeau has in the cartooning industry should not stoop (even temporarily) to publishing unproven charges. There are enough proven problems with society in general (and Dan Quayle specifically) to keep him busy for a long, long time.