20 newspapers object to profanity in 'Doonesbury'

KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- At least 20 newspapers are objecting to today's "Doonesbury" comic strip because it features a profanity, uttered in the strip by Vice President Dick Cheney.

Editors told Universal Press Syndicate, the comic strip's distributor, that if their reporters are not allowed to use profanity in stories, they do not think "Doonesbury" should, either.

In Garry Trudeau's comic, the voice of Cheney directs a caricature of President Bush to tell a reporter to "go ---- himself." The Globe did not complain about the comic, but slightly altered it to use four dashes in the phrase in place of the original, which had a letter followed by three dashes.

The comic is sent to about 1,400 newspapers.