A newspaper has apologised amid public condemnation over a cartoon of Christine Blasey Ford, the woman accusing Donald Trump’s Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh of sexual assault.
The Indianapolis Star published the drawing in its print editions featuring Mr Ford with her back to the reader, sitting in front of Mr Kavanaugh with the words: “Here are my demands - No questions from lawyers, dim the lights, I want roses, sparkling water, a bowl of green M&Ms."
Critics felt the image mocked Dr Ford, who claimed the nominee assaulted her while the pair were in high school in the 1980s.
Through her lawyers, Dr Ford had engaged in negotiations with the Senate Judiciary Committee set to vote on Mr Kavanaugh’s appointment and had asked them to agree to certain terms before she would testify.
The terms were, in her lawyers’ estimation, measures meant to protect the Palo Alto University professor’s family, since they had to vacate their home after receiving death threats in the wake of Ms Ford coming forward about the allegations.
The Washington Post reported: “The comic was drawn by Gary Varvel, an Indy Star cartoonist whose stringently conservative comics have turned heads for years”.
Even the executive editor of the paper, Ronnie Ramos, said in a published note Mr Varvel’s “work ran next to another syndicated cartoon that presented an opposing view” in the editorial pages of the newspaper.
But, he wrote: “The Indy Star also has a responsibility to promote a civil discourse and to present diverse viewpoints in a way that does not demean or appear to belittle anyone who says they are the victim of a sexual assault.”
“Our readers deserved better in this case,” he wrote, adding the cartoon “did not meet our high standards.”
Mr Varvel also issued a statement.
He noted his depiction did not determine whether Dr Ford was “telling the truth” but he admitted he “should have made clearer in my cartoon. As a husband and father of a daughter and granddaughters, I take sexual harassment very seriously”.
Mr Varvel is no stranger to controversy. The newspaper has had to apologise for his depictions of Latin American immigrants and cartoon of a donkey, representing Democrats, being hit by a freight train with Mr Trump's name on it.
Mr Trump had tweeted a version of that, which had replaced the donkey with the logo of CNN, a target of much of the president's "fake news" ire.
Dr Blasey Ford is set to testify on 27 September.
