WASHINGTON, MO (KMOX) - The co-owners of the Missourian newspaper have resigned over an editorial cartoon published in Wednesday's paper by the publisher/editor, William Miller Sr., who is their father.
The cartoon shows a hoodie and mask-wearing black man grabbing a white woman's purse. The woman says "Help, somebody call 911". The man says "Good luck with that lady, we defunded the police."
Susan Miller Warden and Jeanne Miller Wood issued a statement headlined "We Are Sorry" It reads in part: "On behalf of all of our employees at The Missourian we are sorry and DISGUSTED for the editorial cartoon...This does not represent the views of The Missourian staff."
They later issued a more detailed apology (seen below) which ends with: "Because we do not have the editorial control to assure our readers that this won’t happen again, we have resigned in protest. We cannot continue to work for an editor who fails to see the pain this causes and we believe this issue is too important not to take a stand."
Miller also issued an apology, reading part, "I ran a nationally syndicated editorial cartoon in the June 10 edition of The Missourian that was racially insensitive. It was poor judgement on my part and for that I sincerely apologize" Miller said that he has discontinued using cartoons by the cartoonist.
One commentator on the newspaper's Facebook page says, "This cartoon represents why I moved away from the area. Disgusting, racist crap," and another says "People need to see you DOING SOMETHING to seriously right this wrong. Wringing your hands and saying "sorry" isn't going to cut it."
They point out that the cartoon was selected by editor/publisher Bill Miller Sr. The statement ends with, "BLACK LIVES MATTER." The Missourian is based in Washington, Missouri.
Warden and Wood put out another statement on Wednesday afternoon, it states: