At the end of NBC’s Today show on Friday, the hosts gushed over left-wing cartoonist Garry Trudeau marking 50 years of pushing Democratic Party propaganda with his syndicated Doonesbury comic strip. Correspondent Harry Smith marveled over how Trudeau spent the past five decades “fearlessly framing issues he felt mattered,” though never identified the bomb-thrower as liberal or even controversial.
“Just ahead, this has been a part of the fabric of American culture for 50 years, but even the creator of Doonesbury says he didn’t know what he was getting into when he started that comic strip as a student at Yale all those years ago,” co-host Savannah Guthrie fawned during a tease at the top of the 8:30 a.m. ET half hour. During another tease minutes later, fellow co-host Hoda Kotb hailed the comic as “groundbreaking.”
As the over five-and-a-half-minute segment began, Guthrie cheered “a big milestone for a game-changing cartoon.” Smith chimed in with his own fond memories of being an avid fan of the leftist satire: “I’ll tell you, if you were a boomer like me and you were in college, for instance, which was, in my case, and one day all of a sudden appears in this comic strip the stuff that was actually happening in our lives, talk about a game changer.”
“Newspapers and their readers had never seen the likes of it before – Doonesbury,” Smith narrated as he teed up a clip of Trudeau arrogantly borrowing a phrase from late Democratic Congressman and civil rights leader John Lewis: “I got in a lot of what we would now call good trouble.”
Smith swooned over Trudeau’s blatant agenda: “War, AIDS, reproductive rights, Trudeau’s characters lived it all.” The reporter then asked: “Of the people, public people you made fun of, who do you think you’ve made the angriest?” Trudeau proudly responded:
Well, initially, probably Trump. But when he was in New York, Donald Trump, from about 1985 or ’86 on, he was baked into the business plan of comedy. We all went after him. His first appearance in Doonesbury was when he sent up a trial balloon in 1987 - ’88 for a presidential run, which I thought was so preposterous.
“Five decades of poking fun of the powerful and fearlessly framing issues he felt mattered,” Smith applauded. Trudeau bragged: “I had an opportunity to move people to thought and judgment about things that I care about, and to introduce them to things they might not have thought about.”
Following the taped exchange, weatherman Al Roker heralded: “What a groundbreaking comic.” After he noted some newspapers placed Doonesbury on the editorial page, Smith added: “And sometimes when the subject was particularly volatile, these papers would just black out the space for a week or two weeks at a time.”
That was the closest the broadcast ever got to telling viewers how incendiary Trudeau has been throughout his career. No mention was made of his repeated sexist attacks on Republican women like Sarah Palin or Congresswoman Michele Bachmann. His constant attacks on the intelligence of Republican presidents were also ignored. Back in 2016, he even placed a Breitbart reporter in a Ku Klux Klan hood, but the morning show was uninterested.
Nevermind all that, NBC just wants to label their lefty hero “iconic” and “groundbreaking.”
The obsequious celebration of Doonesbury was brought to viewers by Xfinity. You can fight back by letting this advertiser know what you think of it sponsoring such content.
Here is a full transcript of the February 5 segment:
8:30 AM ET TEASE
SAVANNAH GUTHRIE: Just ahead, this has been a part of the fabric of American culture for 50 years, but even the creator of Doonesbury says he didn’t know what he was getting into when he started that comic strip as a student at Yale all those years ago. Well, Harry Smith is gonna take a look back at that story.
CARSON DALY: Oh, that’s cool. Good to see Harry this morning.
(...)
8:33 AM ET TEASE
HODA KOTB: Just ahead, you may not know his face but you probably know his work. The man who’s behind the groundbreaking Doonesbury comic strip for 50 years. Harry catches up with him.
(...)8:36 AM ET SEGMENT
SAVANNAH GUTHRIE: We are back, 8:35, with a big milestone for a game-changing cartoon. Doonesbury, the first daily comic strip to win a Pulitzer Prize is 50 years old.
HODA KOTB: And NBC’s Harry Smith got a chance to chat with its creator. Hey Harry, good morning.
HARRY SMITH: Yeah, good morning, kids. I’ll tell you, if you were a boomer like me and you were in college, for instance, which was, in my case, and one day all of a sudden appears in this comic strip the stuff that was actually happening in our lives, talk about a game changer.
[ON-SCREEN HEADLINE: Doonesbury Turns 50; Harry Smith Looks Back at Iconic Comic Strip]
1970, American forces invade Cambodia, Ronald Reagan is elected governor of California, Chevrolet introduces the Vega, and a graphic design student brings his comic strip to the Yale Daily News.
GARRY TRUDEAU: The managing editor said, “Well, it’s okay, we print pretty much anything,” which was true at the time.
SMITH: It had appeared only a half dozen times when its creator, Garry Trudeau, got the surprise of his life.
TRUDEAU: I get this letter out of the blue from my future editor who said, “How would you feel about doing this?” He didn’t say for the rest of your life, but he said, “How would you feel about syndication?”
SMITH: Newspapers and their readers had never seen the likes of it before – Doonesbury.
TRUDEAU: I got in a lot of what we would now call good trouble. The things that I was writing about, which were quite natural for somebody who just graduated from college, was politics, sex, drugs, rock and roll, all these things that really had had no place on the comics page up until that time.
SMITH: War, AIDS, reproductive rights, Trudeau’s characters lived it all.
TRUDEAU: So I was terribly naive and clueless. The upside of youthful cluelessness is that it’s sometimes confused with courage. So I was seen as daring when it was actually really poor risk assessment on my part.
SMITH: Of the people, public people you made fun of, who do you think you’ve made the angriest?
TRUDEAU: Well, initially, probably Trump. But when he was in New York, Donald Trump, from about 1985 or ’86 on, he was baked into the business plan of comedy. We all went after him. His first appearance in Doonesbury was when he sent up a trial balloon in 1987 - ’88 for a presidential run, which I thought was so preposterous.
CHRIS WALLACE: Can you laugh at the Doonesbury cartoons?
DONALD TRUMP: Well, everybody tells me I am supposed to be honored by that, I’m not sure if it’s an honor or not.
SMITH: No target was beyond Doonesbury’s reach.
Frank Sinatra was not happy with you?
TRUDEAU: He was not. And he initially sicked his lawyer on us and sent a letter to my boss, saying, “Mr. Trudeau in this strip said such and such about Frank Sinatra saying this and it’s all a lie.” So my editor called me up and said, “He says it’s not true.” And I said, “Of course it’s not true, I made it up. I’m a cartoonist.”
SMITH: Five decades of poking fun of the powerful and fearlessly framing issues he felt mattered.
TRUDEAU: I had an opportunity to move people to thought and judgment about things that I care about, and to introduce them to things they might not have thought about.
SMITH: And on the funny pages, no less.
TRUDEAU: I still remember the first day I walked into a drugstore on a college campus and I saw a kid at the lunch counter reading the paper and I could see that I had two strips in that day and I got, bing, bing, two laughs. And I went, what’s better than that? He doesn’t even know I’m here.
SMITH: Garry, who is, of course, still happily married to our own great Jane Pauley, right, how about that? She sends her regards, by the way. One of my favorite stories in talking with him is he grew up in Saranac Lake, up in the Adirondacks, a family of distinguished doctors. And he said, “You know, I never saw my father cry,” it was a very somber kind of household. And once he won the Pulitzer Prize, his father sent him a telegram and said, “I have tears in my eyes.”
AL ROKER: What a groundbreaking comic. I mean, unbelievable. And Harry, I was talking to – because I grew up reading that as well. Some papers wouldn’t print it in the funny pages. They would put it on the editorial page.
SMITH: Editorial page. And sometimes when the subject was particularly volatile, these papers would just black out the space for a week or two weeks at a time. And Garry said, “You know, that’s – listen, that’s their editorial choice, I don’t have a problem with that.” Because, he said, “You know what? At the end of the day, they always came back.” And oh by the way –
CARSON DALY: Harry, what did the other cartoonists think of him, like Charles Schulz? What did they think of his work?
SMITH: Well, you know what, I think it was an extension of what a lot of other people had done. He said one of the strips that he used to read with – almost religiously – was Pogo, which goes way, way back in the day.
ROKER: Walt Kelly.
SMITH: Exactly, correct, right. “We have seen the enemy, and they is us.” This is a old-timer talk here, okay? [Laughter] But if you want, you can get all of Doonesbury, all of it, every single strip comes with a flash drive.
GUTHRIE: Wow!
SMITH: Because if they printed it in a book, it’d weigh about 35 pounds.
GUTHRIE: Wow.
ROKER: That’s cool.
KOTB: Awesome. Thank you, Harry.
GUTHRIE: That’s fun, thank you.
SMITH: Thanks, good to see you. You bet.
GUTHRIE: And hi, Jane.
