The Web site reports that the letter-writing was prompted by GM Canada, which did not like the cartoon from Theo Moudakis on Wednesday that "depicts a couple doing holiday shopping under a banner labeled, 'cheap crappy toys' and the wife asking if the toys were made in China and the husband responding, 'Worse, made in Detroit.'?
The cartoon can be found at:
http://dailycartoonist.com/index.php/2008/12/01/moudakis
-toon-evokes-backlash-from-auto-industry/
The Star's public editor responded in a column on Saturday that "when she first saw the cartoon she felt it was 'provocative, though not particularly humorous,' and the cartoon shouldn?t be seen as a reflection of the views of the paper, but of the cartoonist."
Editorial Page Editor Ian Urquhart, who approved publication of the cartoon, told the Daily Cartoonist: ?Editorial cartoonists are, by nature, edgy and controversial. So, too, are late night TV hosts. Both use satire, which can be taken as offensive by some in the audience. But the forum of public debate would be worse without them.?
Moudakis, who has won a National Newspaper Award for editorial cartooning, added, ?I certainly wasn?t trying to belittle or hurt Oshawa autoworkers. Editorial cartoonists can be cheap shot artists, you can?t deny that, but in the end, we don?t mean to hurt anybody.?