Novak and Controversial Columns

By: Dave Astor The brouhaha surrounding Robert Novak's naming of a CIA person raises a couple of questions for an editorial page editor: What do I do when I see a syndicated column that might be controversial? And is there a need to improve this procedure in the future?

An E&P Online spot check of newspaper editors indicates they all have procedures for dealing with potentially problematic columns, and no immediate plans to change these procedures. The queried editors -- all Novak clients -- also emphasized that they didn't have a problem with his July 14 column naming the wife of ex-Ambassador Joseph Wilson, a critic of the Bush administration's Iraq policy (Syndicate World, Oct. 2).

The editors said it's "rare" for a column to raise a red flag, noting that most syndicated writers are considered trustworthy. But what happens when there is a question about a column?

"I will call the syndicate or maybe talk to the writer," said Steve Huntley, editorial page editor of the Chicago Sun-Times.

"When in doubt, pull it out," said Sean Paige, editorial page editor of The Gazette in Colorado Springs, noting that he'd run a different column instead.

"We would ask more members of the editorial board or perhaps the publisher to take a look at the column," said Nolan Finley, editorial page editor of The Detroit News.

"Two people automatically read each column. If we're troubled by something, we'll show it to the publisher or executive editor," said Steven Macoy, senior editorial writer at the Waterbury (Conn.) Republican-American.

Even as they explained their procedures, the editors said these procedures were not needed for Novak's July 14 piece.

"It didn't raise my eyebrows," said Huntley, noting he got the impression from the column that Wilson's wife was more of a CIA "functionary" than an undercover operative. Huntley added: "I trust Bob implicitly for accuracy, judgment, and ethics."

The Sun-Times is the home paper for Novak, who also appears in more than 150 other papers via Creators Syndicate.

The Gazette's Paige said of the July 14 piece: "I didn't find anything alarming about it at the time, though I'm open to new information. Robert Novak has a long history and a lot of credibility. The CIA is a big bureaucracy, and not all the people who work for it are cloak and dagger." He added that the column was more about Wilson than Wilson's wife. "I don't think Novak's purpose was to blow the woman's cover, if she was undercover," said Paige.

Novak did call Wilson's wife an "operative" in the July 14 column, which he later said was his one regret about the piece. Wilson has stated that his wife was indeed in covert activities, and critics of the column said Novak could have put the woman's life in danger and might have helped the Bush administration to retaliate against Wilson.

Huntley said Novak wasn't even a strong supporter of the Iraq war, and labeled "ludicrous" the accusations that Novak was a White House tool. "Bob may have conservative views, but he's above all a reporter and calls the shots as he sees them," said Huntley.

Finley said The Detroit News ran part of Novak's July 14 column in a roundup of excerpts about weapons of mass destruction. The name of Wilson's wife didn't happen to be included in the roundup, but Finley said he would have had "no qualms" about publishing Novak's full column in July -- and did in fact run it in full the week of Sept. 29. "It was written as if the name of Wilson's wife was common knowledge rather than a revelation," he said.

Macoy reported that the Republican-American didn't run the July 14 piece because it had another column it preferred to publish that day, not because of "any particular nervousness" about Novak naming the CIA person. He added: "Novak has written the column for 40 years. You assume he wouldn't do anything that was illegal or that would result in someone getting injured or killed."

Huntley concluded: "I'm quite surprised that more of the journalistic community hasn't come to Bob's defense. Why? Because he's conservative. It's politics."

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A Cartoonist's Life After Layoff

Anderson's Clients Include 'Star Tribune'

What does a laid-off editorial cartoonist do when openings for equivalent jobs are almost non-existent?

In Kirk Anderson's case, freelance cartooning and illustration -- including some work for the daily newspaper competing with his former employer.

Anderson, 38, was a thrice-weekly editorial cartoonist for the St. Paul Pioneer Press when the newspaper let him go this spring (Syndicate World, April 24). Anderson was told it was for budgetary reasons, but wonders if his involvement with the Minnesota Newspaper Guild-Typographical Union also had something to do with it. Pioneer Press officials have declined to discuss Anderson's layoff with the media.

The union filed a grievance over the layoff, and the case is slated for an arbitration hearing. "We're hoping by the end of the year," said Mike Sweeney, the union's executive officer. The union says Anderson had seniority as a member of the Pioneer Press art department; the paper reportedly says Anderson was a department of one as editorial cartoonist.

During his last days at the Pioneer Press, Anderson publicly criticized the paper and Knight Ridder for eliminating a local cartoon voice, not commenting to the media about his layoff, and more. His words led the paper to kill Anderson's farewell cartoon.

"I may have burned a bridge back then, but the fire made me warm all over," he quipped during a Sept. 29 interview. Anderson added that, given the importance of the First Amendment to journalism and the opinionated nature of what editorial cartoonists do, "it would have been pretty counterintuitive and backward to clam up" after losing his job.

Anderson does not have high hopes of finding another staff position at a daily, but is enjoying his freelance work. Luckily, the cartoonist said, he had plenty of freelance experience prior to joining the Pioneer Press in 1995.

The St. Paul resident now draws illustrations for various clients and two national cartoons a week for the Artizans syndicate (which sells his work mostly to one-shot customers). And Anderson has freelanced some unusual cartoons to the Minneapolis Star Tribune, which, he said, "told me to think outside the box." One cartoon commented on social-spending cuts in Minnesota by placing that state inside a drawing of Texas.

The Star Tribune work gives Anderson a chance to comment on local and state topics, but he misses the regular local/state voice he had at the Pioneer Press.

"My gut reacts more to the national life-and-death issues, but I feel good about the local stuff I did for the Pioneer Press," he said. "I thank my editors there for pushing me to do more local cartoons, because that's certainly where you can have the most impact." Anderson added that "it was a great eight years" at the job.

Since his departure from the Pioneer Press, Anderson has also launched a Web site (http://www.kirktoons.com) and is starting work on a book.

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Herblock Prize Announced

Annual Winner to Receive $10,000

The Herb Block Foundation announced the creation of a $10,000 Herblock Prize for editorial cartooning.

Eligible for the annual competition will be editorial cartoonists published in U.S. newspapers and magazines and the U.S. editions of foreign magazines. The initial prize will be awarded for cartoons published in 2003, with the ceremony taking place next March at the Library of Congress -- repository of more than 14,000 Herblock cartoons.

The foundation (Syndicate World, March 13) also announced the creation of a lecture series. In addition, it has begun soliciting grant proposals from groups "involved in defending basic freedoms" and has approved the establishment of a community-college-scholarship program for needy students in the Washington, D.C., area.

Herblock created the foundation in his will and endowed it with $50 million. The cartoonist died in 2001 at age 91 after a multi-Pulitzer-Prize-winning career that began in 1929 with the Chicago Daily News. He joined The Washington Post in 1946, and his last national distributor was Creators Syndicate.

The foundation recently created a Web site at http://www.herbblockfoundation.org.

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Et cetera ...

Detroit Free Press Executive Editor Carole Leigh Hutton wrote a column defending her decision to kill a negative review of the new novel by Free Press sports columnist Mitch Albom. She said: "Somehow, using him [Albom] to sell newspapers one day and publishing something hurtful about him the next day felt dishonest and hypocritical." But a number of people criticized the decision. One letter to the editor published by the Free Press said: "When a columnist creates work outside of the paper, it should be open to review and criticism." Albom -- the Tuesdays With Morrie author whose new novel is called The Five People You Meet in Heaven -- is syndicated by Tribune Media Services.

Andrews McMeel Publishing has released two new comic collections: Words You Don't Want to Hear During Your Annual Performance Review by "Dilbert" creator Scott Adams of United Feature Syndicate and Ferociously Close to Home by "Close to Home" creator John McPherson of Universal Press Syndicate.

Running Press has published Master Strokes: 401 Proven Lessons for Mastering Every Shot by "Master Strokes" columnists Nick Mastroni and Phil Frank? of United.