The sad erosion of political speech on the comics page

Apparently Johnny Hart’s “B.C.” comic strip, intended to run on the 65th anniversary of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, was too much for the San Antonio Express-News.

The daily pulled his Dec. 7 strip that defined “infamy” as “a word seldom used after Toyota sales topped 2 million.”

Says managing editor Brett Thacker: “More than just a feeble attempt at being topical, it’s a regressive and insensitive statement about one of the worst days in American history.”

But, notes the paper’s ombudsman, Bob Richter: “Some readers might accuse the Express-News of censoring Hart or nodding to the Japanese business interests that selected San Antonio as the site of their new facility to build Toyota trucks which, incidentally, began rolling off the assembly line last month.”

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