Molly goes over the line. And to top it off, she pulled a "Blair" and stole the line. Oh well, that's liberals for ya.
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Sept. 2, 2003
By Tom Guarisco,
Business Report staff
The Advocate edits Ivins column
Last week, syndicated columnist Molly Ivins wrote this about Arnold Schwarzenegger: "One problem I have with Arnold Schwarzenegger is that he looks like a condom stuffed with walnuts."
But if you read her in The Advocate, the opening sentence was not quite as sexy: "One problem I have with Arnold Schwarzenegger is his looks."
"We felt like it was inappropriate," said Advocate Executive Editor Linda Lightfoot. "We felt like it was a bit much."
Lightfoot said the paper occasionally alters syndicated columns as part of its authority to control content on the op-ed page.
"We have done it in the past. I usually take the word 'suck' out," said Lightfoot. The paper also keeps the word "scumbag" off its opinion pages and edits columns for length.
At least one of the other 400 papers that carry Ivins, The Fort Worth Star-Telegram, altered her opening sentence, but Creators Syndicate didn't know anyone had changed the column in The Advocate until Business Report called, Creators Syndicate editor Kathy Kei said.
Some newspapers typically cut profanity from columns, but Creators Syndicate of Los Angeles prefers to be notified when a newspaper is going to change a columnists' words.
"It's a touchy subject," Kei said.
businessreport.com
From KURT BLUMENAU: I would have enjoyed Molly Ivins' condoms-and-walnuts
wisecrack a lot more if she'd actually attributed it. It was critic and novelist Clive James who first, and most memorably, compared Arnold Schwarzenegger to "a condom stuffed with walnuts."
Granted, you can't copyright wisecracks ... but when someone gets off a line that great, their name deserves to be attached to it, I'd say.
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