“Dilbert” creator Scott Adams saw his credit shrink on Monday as dozens of newspapers and a major comic strip site said they would no longer publish his longtime workplace comic strips because of his recent racist comments.
Newspaper readers across the country were greeted by notices from publishers — and, in at least one case, a blank space — warning of outlets’ decision to stop running the popular comic. Adams’ fate was effectively sealed Sunday evening when “Dilbert” distributor Andrews McMeel announced that Universal was severing ties with the cartoonist. By Monday morning, “Dilbert” was gone from the GoComics site, which also features other great comic strips like “Peanuts” and “Calvin and Hobbes.”
In a February 22 episode of his YouTube show, Adams described blacks as members of a “hate group” from which whites should “stay away.” Various media outlets across the US condemned the comments as racist, hateful and discriminatory, while saying they would no longer provide a platform for his work.
Readers of The Sun Chronicle in Attleboro, Massachusetts, found a blank spot where “Dilbert” usually runs in Monday’s edition. The magazine said it would keep the space empty for the rest of March as a “reminder of the racism that permeates our society”.
Newspapers ranging from the Los Angeles Times and The Washington Post to smaller papers like the Santa Fe New Mexican and the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette have said they will stop publishing “Dilbert.” The piece, which illustrates office culture, originally appeared in 1989.
“This is a decision based on the principles of this news organization and the community we serve,” wrote Cleveland Plain Dealer editor Chris Quinn. “We are not a home for racists. We certainly don’t want to fund them.
Andrews McMeel Universal reports that the distributor supports free speech, but that Adams’ comments did not align with the Kansas City, Missouri-based company’s core values.
“We pride ourselves on promoting and sharing diverse voices and perspectives. But we will never support any opinion rooted in prejudice or hatred,” said a statement jointly signed by the chairman and CEO.
Although Adams’ strips are no longer on GoComics, he maintains an extensive archive on his own website. In a YouTube episode posted Monday, Scott Adams said the new “Dilbert” strips will be available only on the local site’s subscription service.
“They made a business decision, and I don’t consider it anything like censorship,” he said of Andrews McMeel Universal, adding that his comments about black people were exaggerated.
Adams previously took to social media to defend herself against people who said they “hate me, cancel me.” He also received support from Twitter CEO Elon Musk, who tweeted that the media used to be “racist against non-whites, now they’re racist against whites and Asians.”
During the Feb. 22 episode of “Real Coffee with Scott Adams,” he referenced a Rasmussen Reports survey that asked people if they agreed with the statement, “It’s OK to be white.” Most agreed, but Adams noted that 26% of black respondents disagreed and the rest weren’t sure.
The Anti-Defamation League said the phrase at the center of the question was about 4chan — the anonymous and vulgar message board — popularized as a trolling campaign by members and beginning to be used by some white supremacists. Rasmussen Reports is a conservative polling firm that has used its Twitter account to endorse false and misleading claims about Covid-19 vaccines, polls and elections. January 6, 2021 attack In the US capital.
Adams, who is white, repeatedly referred to blacks as members of a “hate group” or a “racist hate group” and said he would no longer “help black Americans.”
In another episode of her online show on Saturday, Adams made a point that “everyone should be treated as an individual” without discrimination.
“But you should avoid any group that doesn’t respect you, even if there are good people in the group,” Adams said.
Christopher Kelly, NJ Advance Media’s vice president of content, wrote that the news agency believes in the “free and fair exchange of ideas.”
“But when those comments cross over into hate speech, a line must be drawn,” Kelly wrote.
