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a14 people & arts
Tuesday 7 March 2023
‘Dilbert,’ Scott Adams draw ire from fellow cartoonists

By MARK KENNEDY tributor, Andrews McMeel
AP Entertainment Writer Universal, said it was sever-
NEW YORK (AP) — Car- ing ties with the cartoon-
toonists are pushing back ist. While some outlets re-
against racist remarks placed “Dilbert” with an-
made by “Dilbert” creator other strip, The Sun Chron-
Scott Adams, with one art- icle in Attleboro, Massa-
ist even using his own strip chusetts, decided to keep
this week to lampoon the the space blank through
disgraced cartoon now March “as a reminder of
dropped by newspapers the racism that pervades
nationwide. our society.” The “Dilbert”
Darrin Bell is transform- controversy has rocked a
ing his strip “Candorville” community of daily car-
— which usually features toonists who often create
young Black and Latino work in their homes several
characters — into a way months ahead of publica-
to address Adams’ racism tion. While reliably pro-free
by mimicking the look and speech, they say they’re
style of “Dilbert,” complete also orientated toward a
with wayward necktie. better future — or at least
“The only reason anyone a chuckle.
knows who Scott Adams “We believe comics are
is because of the comics Scott Adams, creator of the comic strip Dilbert, talks about his work at his studio in Dublin, Calif., a powerful medium and
page. So I thought some- on Oct. 26, 2006. that cartoonists should per-
body on the comics page Associated Press petuate laughter, not rac-
should respond to him on an outspoken — and con- to draw a line — to say that brook said. “That’s the spot- ism and hate,” said Tea
the comics page,” Bell, the troversial — presence on this is unacceptable,” said light I wanted to focus on Fougner, editor in chief of
2019 winner of the Pulitzer social media long before Bell, whose new graphic and still do. It’s all a matter King Features Syndicate —
Prize for illustrated reporting describing Black people as novel “The Talk” explores of where you want to put which distributes such strips
and commentary, told The a “hate group” on YouTube growing up as a biracial your focus.” Holbrook said as “Candorville,” “Zits,”
Associated Press. last month. Adams repeat- man in white culture. the Adams case is not one “Mutts” and “Dennis the
In the strips running Mon- edly referred to people Other cartoonists have of so-called cancel culture Menace” — in a statement
day to Saturday, Bell paired who are Black as members stepped forward to de- but of consequences. to the AP. “We are proud
Dilbert with one of his own of a “hate group” and said nounce Adams, like Bill Hol- “I am in full support with of our cartoonists who are
characters, Lemont Brown. he would no longer “help brook, the creator of “On him saying anything he using their platforms to de-
In one, Dilbert hopes Lem- Black Americans.” He later the Fastrack,” a strip that wants to, but then he has nounce the hatred spread
ont will side with him in his said he was being hyper- features an interracial fam- to own the consequences by Scott Adams and en-
quest to get a laundry room bolic, yet continued to de- ily and — like “Dilbert” — of saying them,” he said. courage others to join us
installed at work. fend his stance. focuses on a modern work- “He’s not being canceled. as we stand together as
“You could wash your “When somebody goes place. “One of the things I He’s experiencing the a community to keep the
hoodie,” says Dilbert. Re- too far like Scott Adams wanted to spotlight with my consequences of express- world of cartooning a safe
sponds Lemont: “And you did, everyone who knows characters is that people ing his views.” Individual and welcoming space for
could wash your hood?” better should stand up and do rise above their differ- newspapers have dropped everyone,” the statement
Adams, who is white, was use their First Amendment ences. It can work,” Hol- “Dilbert” and Adams’ dis- said.q

Twitter glitches as links, images fail to load

others. The company tweeted fired most of the people
The company, which has shortly after 10 a.m. Pacific who worked on keeping it
experienced an uptick of time on Monday that it had running. Last month, a bug
instability and bugs in re- addressed the issue. left users unable to send
cent months after Elon According to Downdetec- tweets.
Musk cut its staff sharply, tor, users began reporting In November, engineers
said “Some parts of Twit- the outages shortly before who left Twitter described
ter may not be working as noon U.S. Eastern time. In- for The Associated Press
expected right now. We ternet access watchdog why they expect a bumpy
made an internal change NetBlocks said “Twitter is road for Twitter’s more than
that had some unintended currently experiencing in- 230 million users now that
consequences.” ternational slowdowns and well over two-thirds of the
Trying to visit Twitter’s help outages affecting many San Francisco company’s
page Monday led to an er- users,” and noted that it pre-Musk core services en-
ror message that says “Your was also affecting image gineers are gone.
A Twitter logo hangs outside the company’s offices in San current API plan does not and video content. Some While they don’t anticipate
Francisco, on Dec. 19, 2022. include access to this end- users were not able to see near-term collapse, the en-
Associated Press point” and displays a link to the images that other users gineers said Twitter could
a software developer page were posting. become very rough at the
Associated Press Monday as links stopped that also doesn’t work. Twitter engineers and ex- edges — especially if Musk
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — working, some users were Musk tweeted Monday: perts have warned that the makes major changes
Twitter experienced a bevy unable to log in and im- “This platform is so brittle platform is at an increased without much off-platform
of glitches for over an hour ages were not loading for (sigh). Will be fixed shortly.” risk of fraying since Musk testing.q