Doonesbury and Mallard Fillmore should get the ax

Years ago, a lot of newspapers stopped running 'Doonesbury” on the comics page due to pressure from some groups contending it was too political. At that time, I was not a subscriber; but I suppose that The Gazette decided to run 'Mallard Fillmore” alongside 'Doonesbury” in the Insights section, in order to present some semblance of balance in these daily political cartoons.

Now, and for the past several years, 'Doonesbury” has been rerunning old strips, while 'Mallard Fillmore” continues to run new comics every day with current commentary reflecting views from the right. It is a joke to think this provides any kind of reasonable balance between left and right political views. In my view, neither strip contributes much in the way of editorial discourse: Mallard is predictable, and Doonesbury is outdated. I think The Gazette should discontinue both strips and make a little bit more room for some other forms of commentary.

Russ Lenth

Iowa City