The Press: Try, Try Again

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When the first edition of the Denver Post reached Editorial Page Editor Mort Stern's desk one day last week, Stern opened it to the editorial page. After one horrified look, he sped a Stern command to the composing room. Two hours later, when the Post's second edition hit the streets, the work of Editorial Cartoonist Paul Conrad was gone.

What stirred Stern's wrath was a particularly unflattering portrait of President Dwight D. Eisenhower (see cut). The "independent" Post has learned to expect less than charity for Ike from its Democratic cartoonist, who habitually draws the President to look as if he does not have all his marbles.

"Beyond the limits of good taste," said Editor Stern, substituting a syndicated cartoon by Bill Mauldin for the absent Conrad. "It was cruel," agreed Post Publisher Palmer Hoyt. Said chastened Cartoonist Conrad: "If the management wants to drop a cartoon or, substitute another one, that is its prerogative."