Inpress Respond To Social Media Storm Over Comic Strip

After a rumour fired up that Inpress had sacked its cartoonist (it hadn't), the 'pitchfork & torch' brigade came banging on the door. Street Press Australia's Group Managing Editor Andrew Mast answers the door.

Mid-Friday afternoon the Inpress Twitter feed (Inpress is published by Street Press Australia, owners of themusic.com.au) received a feedback tweet typical of comments often sent to publications. By Sunday morning, the topic of that tweet had led to one of the paper's publishers getting abusive phonecalls on a private line from complete strangers.

The tweet that grew to a phone rage roar touched on a regular feature of the paper that has courted controversy on and off for two decades now. It was about the Pub Strip, drawn by Fred Negro – a man so a part of the St Kilda landscape that people think he is actually the Kilda who was canonised.

The Strip is no stranger to being censored due to Negro's take-no-prisoners attitude toward politics, sex, drugs, local musical identities, Brian Wilson and poo jokes. Negro's cartoons have upset its fair share of parents over the years and even landed Inpress in front of the Australian Press Council (the complaint was thrown out).

Those offended by the Pub Strip are usually either upset by the language utilised by Negro or the body parts he enjoys depicting. But Negro's drawings have also copped it from those who believe it is sometimes sexist.

Friday's complaint fell into the latter category. And, as noted earlier, all publications expect criticism – in fact, publications should welcome feedback from their readers as that's who we are trying to keep informed and entertained.

So it was not that out of the ordinary to receive Friday's tweet from wannastartanew: “Ima call it @inpressmag, it's time Negro's comic strip is removed.”

Minutes later there was a response from davehinnrichs: “big call.” Wannastartanew fired back: “I'm tired of seeing pornographic images of females. No it's not balanced by cock drawings.”

So far, so the norm. Inpressmag didn't wanna appear rude, so, as the desperate-for-human-contact Inpress tweeter often does, a response was sent out: “appreciate getting feedback on this – would love to know what others think of the longrunning #FredNegro strip.”

Uh oh. We engaged.

At first the responses were what you expect when putting a divisive topic up for discussion. A few well-expressed views came in from those who oppose Negro and some thoughtful expressions of support were tweeted from fans.

There were comments from fellow Inpress contributors, respected comedians, wannabe comedians and many long-time readers. A small sample of responses: “I like it”; “YAWN”; “pretty much the only reason I pick up a copy of @inpressmag”; “Negro is a brilliant comic artist”; “I only ever found it offensive cuz it's drawn by and for a hetero male gaze” and so forth.

Then the twitter commentary was noted in a six-year-old thread about Fred Negro on Mess + Noise. RalphMalph wrote in the re-ignited-for-this-topic thread: “Inpress currently asking for feedback on Twitter regarding Fred's Comic Strip. Might not be long to go.”

Hey, we thought it was our job to draw long bows and make gossipy assumptions about things we read in passing on the internet (Malph must be wanting to come and work for us).

And then, as things do via social media and internet chatter, a rumour was born. Within 48 hours Inpress was being accused of sacking Negro via Twitter (anybody who knows us would tell you we only sack by fax – it's tried and true).

Then the M+N thread took a strange turn. Within a few posts it went from “Thousands of people would throw Inpress in the bin if they drop the Pub Strip” to “It's the sneaky way they've gone about it that galls. Posted the link around Facebook, there are some very unhappy people who want to give a piece of their mind to Inpress now.”

Okay – did we miss the escalation of the situation somewhere inbetween posts? However the thread pretty much petered out after that.

Except that… the Facebook 'campaign' to 'save' Negro's strip had begun. This wasn't like one of those gone-viral Kony-type campaigns but the pitchforks were being sharpened and the stakes were being doused in petrol ready to be lit.

The Inpress Facebook page started getting hit up with posts such as: “WARNING……. Lose Fred's Pub Strip and lose half your readers”; “leave pub strip alone”; and the old chestnut “political correctness has gone mad”.

Ohmigod, are we one post away from the inevitable Nazi comparison? Does that mean we've made it?

Had this 'debate' - about something that wasn't even being contemplated - just stayed online this piece would probably not have been written but it stepped off the screen and into the real world. Negro, who was blissfully unaware of his newfound social media fame, was having people approach him to say how upset they were that his Strip had been dumped. It was news to Negro.

Then on Sunday, an Inpress publisher began to get the phonecalls to his mobile from people he didn't know, imploring/threatening him not to dump the Strip. It was news to him too.

Nothing got nasty. It was maybe just a case of over-enthusiastic fans. But. It was weird.

A reader had attempted to open up a discussion about sexism in our paper. We thought, “yeah, let's see what others think.” Next thing it's “political correctness gone mad” and a talented artist is being told, mistakenly, that he's lost a long-running gig.

It would seem our sin was to invite discussion. Discussion? On social media? Madness.

Had we known the invitation to discuss would garner us so much attention we would have done this years ago. Coming next week: “Hey readers, what do really think of our credits box? #isthefonttoosmall”.