It is not unusual for an editor to fold and apologize for a cartoon that has offended readers; it is more rare for the cartoonist to agree and pull the cartoon. Earlier this week, Gary Varvel published a cartoon in the IndyStar criticizing Dr. Christine Blasey Ford in the lead up to her testimony at Brett Kavanaugh's hearing for a seat on the Supreme Court. Whatever Varvel's intent, it misfired — badly.
The backlash was immediate and widespread, and by the next day the editor posted the following apology: https://www.indystar.com/story/opinion/2018/09/24/indystar-gary-varvel-christine-ford-cartoon-editor-response/1410020002/
Varvel offered a mea culpa and pulled the cartoon from his site. "My cartoon was focused only on Ford’s demands, not on whether she was telling the truth,” Varvel said. “This is a point I should have made clearer in my cartoon. As a husband and father of a daughter and granddaughters, I take sexual harassment very seriously.”
The Daily Cartoonist tracked the outrage, took a look at why the cartoon failed, and how other cartoonists were able to approach the subject without drawing the ire of, well, almost everyone. https://www.dailycartoonist.com/index.php/2018/09/24/new-outrage-gary-varvels-christine-ford-cartoon/
