NEWSPAPER APOLOGIZES FOR CARTOON

The owner of a Kansas weekly newspaper, has apologized for a cartoon posted on the paper’s Facebook page that equated Governor Laura Kelley’s coronavirus-inspired order for people to wear masks in public with the mass murder of Jews by the Nazis during the Holocaust. Dane Hicks, owner and publisher of The Anderson County Review, said in a statement on Facebook that he was removing the cartoon that was posted last Friday, and drew dozens of critical responses and international attention. A blog post by Hicks on Saturday defending it also drew critical responses. The cartoon depicted Kelly wearing a mask with a Jewish Star of David on it, next to a digitally altered image of people being loaded onto train cars. Its caption said, “Lockdown Laura says: Put on your mask … and step onto the cattle car.”