Anti-Gay Cartoon Runs In Notre Dame Student Newspaper, Editor Apologizes

The editor of Notre Dame's student newspaper has issued an apology for a viciously anti-gay cartoon that ran in this week's edition. "What's the quickest way to turn a fruit into a vegetable?" A baseball bat. The punchline in the cartoon was originally going to be "AIDS," but the artist "didn't want to make fun of fatal diseases." GLAAD is on the case:

In a statement to the press today, The Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD) claimed “The Observer made a dangerously misguided decision that promoting violence was somehow superior to making fun of HIV/AIDS. Both versions of the cartoon were abhorrent.” GLAAD contacted The Observer’s editor, Jenn Metz, who relayed a tearful apology by phone. She explained that she was not present when the decision to run the cartoon was made, and that she was incredibly upset that others on staff had made that decision.

An apology printed in the paper this morning included the following: "The editors of The Observer would like to publicly apologize for the publication of “The Mobile Party” in the Jan. 13 edition. The burden of responsibility ultimately lies on us for allowing it to go to print. 
There is no excuse that can be given and nothing that can be said to reverse the damage that has already been done by this egregious error in judgment. 
 Allowing this cruel and hateful comic a place on our pages disgraced those values and severely hurt members of our Notre Dame family — our classmates, our friends. For this, we sincerely apologize. Unfortunately, the language of hate is an everyday reality in our society.”