The News in Not Really Censorship
Millionaire cartoonist's comic with typically lame political/sex gag not published in several major newspapers, instead disseminated via the web and, eventually, print collections. Reason given: desire to not offend mythical comics reading radical Islamists. Censorship!
This is part of what makes the battle against censorship so difficult. If you're not wasting time defending puerile potty-mouthed "artistes," you're protecting people who aren't really being censored, owing to their media connections. The Trib won't run you? Try Salon. Of course, I'm sure the idea of succès de scandale never entered anyone's mind here.
I've never found Breathed's strips especially funny. He has a formula, and it works for him and his audience, so godspeed to him. Still, I've always found his strips to be predictably conscientiously loopy and grotesque. That would be fine, but his attachment of merchandise-friendly cutesiness to it all has always niggled at me.