Kansas City Star: Guiding Lite on Moral Turpitude

Amusing.

The Kansas City Star doesn't know what it wants to be. A good news only newspaper? Seemingly so, though unfortunately all the good news it crams onto its front pages are neither interesting nor well written.

Then buried deep within the paper we find the hard news. Deaths in Irag. Bush and Rove. Today, for instance, the fact that a draft version of the constitution that Iraq will soon ratify carries heavy emphasis on Islamic law, in fact, going so far that all laws much also conform with Islamic traditions.

Oops, does that mean women may have some difficulties being represented in Iraq? Wasn't it a secular government that we sent American boys and girls over there to die for? (I mean once the WMDs were all accounted for!)

But the Star does not feel this story merits more than Page 8 coverage when you can have front page stories about the death of a man who founded one of the "haunted houses" in Kansas City, a teenager for being punished for throwing up on his Spanish teacher, or a light feature about growing up in Kansas.

Oh, and then there are "bad words."

The Star censored Doonesbury today because it used George Bush's own pet name for his boy genius, Karl "Hey, Did You Hear About Wilson's Wife" Rove. Then, going one step more, the Star censored the Associated Press story that reported they had censored the strip.

For your reading pleasure, here is the segment that did not make it to the Star:

In the strip, Bush and an aide are lamenting the problems the administration has had over allegations that Rove leaked the name of a CIA officer to reporters.

Bush says, "Karl's sure been earnin' his nickname lately."

The unnamed aide says, "Boy Genius? I'm not so sure sir ..."

Bush then says, "Hey Turd Blossom! Get in here."

The term is said to be one of several nicknames Bush uses for Rove, one of his closest allies and who is widely credited for Bush's election in 2000 and re-election in 2004. The mainstream U.S. media have rarely mentioned the nickname, but it has gained traction in the international press and on the Internet.

Among those with concerns was the Providence (Rhode Island) Journal, whose editors removed the offensive word from the strip's final panel.

"I didn't think (taking out the word) hurt it," Executive Editor Joel Rawson said. "I would prefer to run the strip and if we can edit it, that's fine."

Other papers, such as The Kansas City Star, removed the strip entirely, replacing it with an older one.

"We thought it was in bad taste and probably unclear to a lot of people why we would be using the term," said Steve Shirk, the Star's managing editor/news.

And in case you want to read today's strip, go to: http://www.uclick.com/client/nyt/db/