Papers drop Dilbert comic strip over remarks
‘Recent racist comments’ by cartoonist Scott Adams don’t meet standards of Torstar, Postmedia
Several of Canada’s largest newspapers have dropped the Dilbert comic strip over recent remarks by its creator.
The Toronto Star published a note stating the strip will no longer appear in its weekend comic section because “recent racist comments by the cartoonist, Scott Adams, are not in line with the Star’s journalistic standards.”
This follows a tweet from the Globe and Mail that stated it decided to drop the comic because of “recent discriminatory comments” by Adams that “do not align with our editorial or business values as an organization.”
Also dropping Dilbert are the The Hamilton Spectator, Waterloo Region Record, Niagara Falls Review, Welland Tribune, St. Catharines Standard and Peterborough Examiner
Meanwhile, Postmedia, whose brands include several Sun papers across the country, says it decided over the weekend “to discontinue Dilbert effective immediately, for the reasons you’ve seen many other organizations in North America take similar actions.”
Several media publishers across the United States have cancelled the strip and denounced Adams for sharing comments last week deemed racist, hateful and discriminatory.
Adams’ distributor, Andrews McMeel Universal, also dropped him.
On an episode of the YouTube show, “Real Coffee with Scott Adams,” Adams, who is white, described people who are Black as members of “a hate group” from which white people should “get away.”
Dilbert is a long-running comic that pokes fun at office-place culture.
Duncan Clark, chief content officer at Postmedia, said by email Monday “the values Scott Adams has publicly expressed in his recent comments don’t align with our values as a company.”
“We made the decision over the weekend and it was removed from all print editions as of today,” Clark said.
“We also on the weekend instructed our third party provider to remove Dilbert from our digital comics packages as soon as possible. This applies to all Postmedia properties.”
Postmedia’s flagship paper, the National Post, has not carried the comic in years.