Cartoonist Criticizes Coverage of U.S. Voting Problems

By: Dave Astor Cartoonist Wiley Miller is disgusted with how little attention the American media is paying to reports of voting irregularities on Nov. 2, and he made his feelings known in yesterday's "Non Sequitur" comic.

In the comic, Miller showed his Joe character reading "The Ukrainian Times," which has the headline "Election Fraud." When asked why he's perusing that newspaper, Joe answers: "Oh, I'm just curious what an independent press questioning its government looks like." When asked why America doesn't "have one of those," Joe replies: "I think it has something to do with values."

Miller told E&P today that he's upset by "the laziness and lack of guts by our entire 'news' media -- both print and electronic. They should all be embarrassed by what happened in the Ukraine. But that would take integrity, wouldn't it? At least they're providing me with material, so maybe I shouldn't complain."

The Universal Press Syndicate cartoonist added that he would like to have seen America's media "pursue the election results and the many questions surrounding its legitimacy with the same fervor and interest they showed in the all-important story of steroid use by baseball players. But I guess that in itself shows what's really important to corporate wonks posing as editors today."

"Non Sequitur" appears in more than 700 newspapers -- none of which, to Miller's knowledge, complained about yesterday's comic. Reader reaction? "I've been surprised by how little response it's gotten. I thought I'd be flooded by red-state rage, but it just shows that you can never predict these things. The cartoons you think will get the most reaction hardly ever get what you expect, while the most innocuous cartoons quite often produce a flood of mail."

The mail Miller has received is all positive so far. One person wrote: "Thanks for the great 'toon which pokes fun at the Ukraine election and, by innuendo, the problem with our own election 2004. Is it too much to hope that the issue is getting out there? I sure would like to see more cartoonists ... join you."

Miller told E&P "it's not cartoonists I want to join me in questioning the election results, it's editors and reporters. But they're so far gone in being bought off by corporate interests, it's not going to happen. We no longer have a free, independent press in this country."