THE PEOPLE HAVE SPOKEN. And they want their Garfield.After the Rocky Mountain News quietly eliminated the cartoon cat from their funny pages, readers started complaining. Here is part of the paper's announcement of Garfield's return:
More than 2,000 readers wrote, e-mailed and called our comics hot line after the strip was dropped. Many Garfield fans told us that in these troubled times, they counted on the comic relief of their longtime favorite strip.
Should readers be able to have such influence over the content of the newspaper?
10 comments:
For something as innocuous as Garfield, I don't see a problem with giving people what they want. One of the duties of journalism is to serve the public. For more important matters, public opinion should be considered, but should not dominate the media's message.
it`s their paper, is it not?
i don't see any problem with the people wanting their favorite comic back. the newspaper is for the people so when they want or don't want something, shouldn't their wishes be granted?
When it comes to something like comics in a newspaper, why not give the public a say as to what they want in that section? Garfield has been around forever it seems like, and if people find an escape while reading the comic, then perhaps the newspaper should think about bringing it back.
The real question is, why did they pull the comic?
Nobody is scared that, by giving in to the demands of 2,000 people, you might be starting a trend?
Only 2,000 people of the 200,000 readers complained. The paper made a change because of a whining minority of their readership.
What do you do if those 2,000 whiners say, "We only want news that makes us laugh?" Do you then only provide funny stuff?
- George (the teacher who likes to take everything one step farther)
Of course, because they're the ones buying the paper, and if they don't get what they want, the paper will loose readers. It's not anything major enough to start a trend, just Garfield, the cat almost everyone loves. If our duty is to the citizens and the citizens want Garfield, then they should get Garfield.
Its Garfield... who doesn't love Garfield? Especially with everything going on in society nowadays, a little comic relief is a good thing. I feel bringing the cartoon back is a good idea espeically because the readers want him back.
If it was another section of the newspaper, it would be different. But with the comics, all that it's supposed to do is entertain. It doesn't have a deeper purpose to inform. It's not journalism. So I don't see a problem with it being controlled by the whiney minority who care about it.
It is just the comics, it is entertainment-- why not have the comic they want. If it was another section of the paper then they should not have as much influence.
Who are the journalists writing the paper for? The people! So why shouldn't they have say in what goes in it. It's a business isn't it, so give the people what they want and the newspapers will sell.
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