A comic strip that recently appeared in The Observer, a student newspaper at the University of Notre Dame, has led to outrage from many and an apology from the publication’s staff, the South Bend Tribune reported.
The three-panel strip featured a talking saw asking, “What is the easiest way to turn a fruit into a vegetable?” A man responds, “No idea,” a man responds. “A baseball bat,” saw answered.
Jenn Metz, the Observer’s editor-in-chief, said that she was “outraged and extremely offended” by the strip. She added that she has no idea when the cartoon was added, saying it was not there when last Wednesday’s edition was put together. (Metz ran an apologetic editorial Jan. 15.) The Rev. John Jenkins, Notre Dame’s president, condemned the strip.
According to Advocate.com, assistant managing editor Kara King resigned Jan. 18. She wrote, “A miscommunication between another editor and myself led to the comic running without me first reading and approving the material. Regardless, no excuse can justify the comic even being considered for publication, and the duty to censor it fell to me. I failed to do so, and am solely responsible for providing a forum for this message of hate.”