A recent cartoon in the Rochester Business Journal has angered a number of people on social media and elsewhere.
It was a syndicated cartoon placed on the Opinion page in the October 19th printed edition, which depicted several caricatures including one of a supposed transgendered person, and references to earlier controversies involving the African American and Native American communities.
The RBJ put out an apology this week saying that the cartoon should never have been published and that it does not reflect the views of the publication or its staff (see the full apology below).
The statement also says the RBJ does not condone racist or hateful content in any way, and “are very sorry for running this offensive cartoon.” The paper also says it has been reaching out to various local organizations to see how they can better educate staff and going forward, there are new procedures for how all RBJ content is approved and finalized.
But Rowan Collins, a spokesman for the Out Alliance in Rochester, says that while he appreciates the newspaper is putting out a statement, more needs to be done.
“But I think the thing that is missing, the thing that a lot of the community was really looking for was the accountability aspect; what does the new process look like? What are the new procedures for how content is approved and finalized, what does that actually mean and have there been consequences for any of the individuals involved with seeing this cartoon all the way to print?”
He also said that, “I think a lot of folks within our community , especially the LGBT community small business owners in Rochester and there’s quite a few, this is hurtful on multiple levels, especially considering that by its name alone, the Rochester Business Journal does serve as that mouthpiece, front and center for Rochester business.”
There have been a number of negative comments on social media about the decision to run the cartoon, and among those upset by the cartoon is Lisa Kribs-LaPierre, a founding partner of a company called TGW, which is involved in social impact marketing.
Kribs-LaPierre says their website has a page showing local businesses who wanted to express their objection to that cartoon having been in the RBJ.
“We put up just a basic statement coming from TGW Studio saying, if you feel the same way we do about this, that this is not an accurate representation of our local businesses in Rochester, put your name on the list, so that the Rochester Business Journal can see for themselves how many of us actually feel this way,” Kribs-LaPierre told WXXI News.
The cartoon, which was penned by Rick McKee of the Augusta Chronicle, also caused an apology to be written in the Fort Worth-Star Telegram, which ran the cartoon as well.
Ben Jacobs is the editor of the Rochester Business Journal. He says there won't be any more editorial cartoons in the RBJ.
"We don’t think they serve our core mission and we had thought of getting rid of them before and hadn’t yet and we decided it made sense to just stop publishing them," Jacobs told WXXI News.
He also said, regarding the cartoon, that “The paper definitely doesn’t endorse it, we’re not going to go into all the details on how it ended up in the paper but it was a mistake; combination of bad judgement and the process that we needed to shore up and we’re looking at changing our editorial processes to make sure nothing like this can ever happen again."
Jacobs says the newspaper hopes to provide a platform for more diverse voices in the RBJ going forward.
