Fallout from Scott Adams’ podcast a couple days ago begins.
From Cleveland Plain Dealer editor Chris Quinn:
Scott Adams, creator of the Dilbert comic strip, went on a racist rant this week on his Coffee with Scott Adams online video show, and we will no longer carry his comic strip in The Plain Dealer.
This is not a difficult decision.
… this is a decision based on the principles of this news organization and the community we serve. We are not a home for those who espouse racism. We certainly do not want to provide them with financial support.
We are part of Advance Local, and the leaders in all Advance Local newsrooms independently have made the same decision we did to stop running the strip. That includes newspapers in Michigan, New York, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Alabama, Massachusetts and Oregon.
Unfortunately, for the next week or so, you’ll still see some Dilbert cartoons in our pages. The comics are printed in advance, and the Sunday, Wednesday and Sunday, March 5, sections are waiting to be inserted into the newspapers for those days.
Until we decide what to replace Dilbert with, you’ll likely see a gray box where it has been appearing.
Plain Dealer Editorial Cartoonist Jeff Darcy tells us that the Advance Local group has called on the Andrews McMeel Syndicate to drop the strip from their online platform that goes out to newspaper websites.
John Hiner, Vice President of Content for Advance Local’s MLive Media Group,
informs their Michigan readers why Dilbert is disappearing from those newspapers:
Scott Adams, the increasingly controversial creator of the “Dilbert” comic strip, this week went on an unapologetically racist rant on a video broadcast. Because of that, we are dropping his strip in our eight newspapers and online, as soon as practically possible.
Here is the message that I have prepared for our print readers:
Fans of the comic strip “Dilbert” will notice that it is missing from their Sunday comics. We have discontinued the strip, effective immediately, due to racist comments that the strip’s creator, Scott Adams, posted on social media.
The values we stand for as a company, as community members and as an employer of a diverse work force demand that we take immediate and unambiguous action against that kind of bias and stereotype. Adams’ views are his choice; our choice is not to associate our company with him.
Later that same day:
The USA Today Network/Gannett has joined in dropping Dilbert according to The Blaze:
USA Today announced that it would stop publishing the “Dilbert” cartoon after comments about black people from the creator went viral on social media.
“At @Gannett, we lead with inclusion and strive to maintain a respectful and equitable environment for the diverse communities we serve nationwide,” read the statement from the company that publishes USA Today.
“The USA Today Network will no longer publish the Dilbert comic due to recent discriminatory comments by its creator,” it added.
At the end of the piece The Blaze added:
However in an interaction with a critic on social media later, Adams appeared to assert that he did not seriously believe what he said about racial relations.
February 25 UPDATE
Now Hearst newspapers are dropping Dilbert.
From the Hearst San Antonio Express-News:
The San Antonio Express-News is dropping the comic strip “Dilbert” because of hateful and discriminatory public comments by its creator, Scott Adams.
Hearst’s San Francisco Chronicle dropped Dilbert last year due to content in the strip, but on covering this latest Dilbert news it reports at least some of their two dozen sister papers in the Hearst group are now dropping the comic:
Dilbert was dropped Saturday by the San Antonio Express News and Hearst Connecticut Media Group, which are owned by Hearst Communications, The Chronicle’s parent company. “We believe strongly in upholding important newsroom standards and values aimed at supporting society, and the valued readers we serve,” the papers said in a note to readers.
From the Hearst Connecticut Media Group:
Reader note: Hearst Connecticut Media Group will no longer be publishing the “Dilbert” comic strip following discriminatory comments by its creator. We believe strongly in upholding important newsroom standards and values aimed at supporting society, and the valued readers we serve.
Hearst’s Houston Chronicle follows suit.
No word (yet) on the McClatchy and Tribune newspapers.
The Chicago Tribune has announced it will no longer carry Dilbert. Will other Tribune papers follow?
The Baltimore Sun did. As does The Allentown Morning Call and The Orlando Sentinel.
The WEHCO group of newspapers has dropped the comic strip according to The Texarkana Gazette.
Lee Enterprises had dropped Dilbert last Fall.
From the comments section below:
GoComics didn’t carry the regular Dilbert strip. GoComics did carry “Dilbert Classics” and Dilbert en Espanol” which are no longer listed on the GoComics page: https://www.gocomics.com/comics/a-to-z
The GoComics digital platform supplied to subscribing newspaper websites no longer carries any of the Dilbert strips: https://www.oregonlive.com/go-comics/?amu=/explore/list
The Andrews McMeel Syndication page still has Dilbert available: http://syndication.andrewsmcmeel.com/comics/list
Washington Post added to newspapers dropping Dilbert. Or read it via MSN.
By Thursday, The Post began hearing from readers calling for the strip’s cancellation. On Friday, the USA Today Network said that it “will no longer publish the Dilbert comic due to recent discriminatory comments by its creator.” The Gannett-owned chain oversees more than 300 newspapers, including the Arizona Republic, Cincinnati Enquirer, Detroit Free Press, Indianapolis Star, Austin American-Statesman and Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.
“In light of Scott Adams’s recent statements promoting segregation, The Washington Post has ceased publication of the Dilbert comic strip,” a spokesperson for the newspaper said Saturday, noting that it was too late to stop the strip from running in some upcoming print editions, including Sunday’s.
In the same [Saturday podcast], Adams suggested that he had done irreparable harm to a once sterling career.
“Most of my income will be gone by next week,” he told about 3,000 live-stream viewers. “My reputation for the rest of my life is destroyed. You can’t come back from this, am I right? There’s no way you can come back from this.”
The Atlanta Journal Constitution adds itself to the growing list:
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution will cease publication of “Dilbert” based on comments creator Scott Adams made this past week calling for racial separatism.
Adams’ racist comments are incompatible with the AJC’s values and undermine our mission to make Atlanta and the world a better place by serving our community through fact-based news and information and insightful opinion.
Unknown if the three Cox newspapers in Ohio (The Hamilton Journal-News, the Springfield News-Sun, and the Dayton Daily News) will join the action.
A growing list of independent newspapers are joining the movement –
The Los Angeles Times, The New York Daily News, The Santa Rosa Press Democrat, The Philadelphia Inquirer, The Albuquerque Journal, The Boston Globe, Portland Press Herald/Maine Sunday Telegram, Santa Fe New Mexican, The (Spokane) Spokesman-Review , The Seattle Times, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, Salt Lake Tribune, and on and on.
It is looking increasingly likely that Scott Adams’ prediction of the number of newspapers carrying Dilbert, “By Monday, around zero,” will not be far from wrong.
And in the end:
After the Lee owned papers dropped Dilbert, it’s the Cleveland Plain-Dealer’s turn.
Hope this situation isn’t another situation like it happened with Non Sequitur in 2019.
It’s not just the The Plain Dealer that has dropped Dilbert. All Advance papers in the nation also have, as our editor Chris Quinn and the Daily Cartoonist story points out.
Jeff Darcy
Editorial cartoonist/Opinion writer
The Plain Dealer/cleveland.com
It’s probably not a news flash at this late hour, but apparently Dilbert has also been pulled from the GoComics roster. The Post-Dispatch still has Current, Classic, and Español, all of which are “Powered by GoComics”. We’ll have to pull a Betty here: Lie down and see what tomorrow brings.
GoComics didn’t carry the regular Dilbert strip. GoComics did carry “Dilbert Classics” and Dilbert en Espanol” which are no longer listed on the GoComics page: https://www.gocomics.com/comics/a-to-z
The GoComics digital platform, as requested by The Plain Dealer, no longer carries any of the Dilbert strips: https://www.oregonlive.com/go-comics/?amu=/explore/list
The Andrews McMeel Syndication page still has Dilbert available: http://syndication.andrewsmcmeel.com/comics/list
Dilbert is one of the half dozen comics carried by my local (Tea Party/MAGA-ish) newspaper. I’ll be keeping on eye on that.
New Dilbert strips were moved long ago at the request of Scott Adams to Dilbert.com, which is still up at the moment.
“Adams appeared to assert that he did not seriously believe what he said about racial relations.”
What does this mean? He was just stoking it for propaganda in order to get praised by extremists?
He’s just doing what Carlson, et al, did since the 2020 election . . . lie about The Big Lie, just to keep them ‘relevant’ . . .
The last refuge of the bigot is the ability to discriminate against LGBTQ. It’s the bigot’s version of the Alamo, their last stand. They can’t say the n word, they failed to build a wall, they can’t call a Jew or Catholic or Muslim their favorite negative terms – but they can still point to LGBTQ.
It’s just that Adams appeared so frustrated in this interview he crossed the line and reverted. The right wing has licensed such behavior and people like Adams are emboldened. They’ll continue until social repercussions are so harsh they’ll stop. However, it’s not a small segment of society and I fear they’ll actually succeed in making the behavior acceptable and hate to fester until the logical end of history repeats.
LBJ said, “If you can convince the lowest white man he’s better than the best colored man, he won’t notice you’re picking his pocket. Hell, give him somebody to look down on, and he’ll empty his pockets for you.” That’s the vein tapped by the likes of Trump, DeSantis, Carlson et al. See their support. Watch them come out to defend Adams, too. Follow the money from those pockets.
Just thinking about the many Dilbert strips decorating office cubicle walls, some that are of reprints from the 90s that have been pinned up for more than a decade. Anyone seeing those coming down? Any good suggestions on good replacements? Andertoons?
Pogo.
“We have met the enemy, and he is us.”
What’s going to replace Dilbert in the Chicago Tribune and New York Daily News starting Feb. 27, 2023? Maybe the New York Daily News finally gets to run Garfield after the New York Post withdrew its comics almost a decade ago.
For me, the real lesson here is how often people of any political persuasion are so locked in their own confirmation tunnel, hearing nothing but echoes back at themselves that it leads them to stupidity like this. Where they spout off about a fake poll, created by trolls and think it’s plausible.
I lost all esteem for Adams years ago. The decision to remove Dilbert, a strip that has now lost its appeal, is a right decision for me.
Poor Scott Adams must have been traumatized watching The Woman King as a child.
The Tampa Bay Times is still carrying Dilbert as of Today (2/26) but I’m sure they’re going to monitor the situation. Dilbert does not appear in the Daily traditional paper (they only carry Peanuts, Blondie and Pickles) but does appear in the e-Edition. I’ll check back Tomorrow.
Oh I forgot to add the Orlando Sentinel is dropping Dilbert. It runs in their Business pages Daily so there likely will be no replacement for the Daily versions but it remains to be seen if there will be a Sunday replacement.
Gee Whiz, Scott – words really DO have consequences.
And a local Illinois paper called The Daily Herald will also drop Dilbert from its comics pages effective Feb. 27, 2023.