Columbus Dispatch suspends cartoon after criticism

COLUMBUS (AP) — An Ohio newspaper says it is suspending an editorial cartoon indefinitely after a blog reported a Sunday panel resembles a 2009 New Yorker cartoon.

The Daily Cartoonist on Tuesday shows a Columbus Dispatch cartoon by Jeff Stahler of a woman at a desk telling a man his resume is “in a medium-sized pile” on the floor near “the assistant director’s office.” The 2009 cartoon involves a novel “in a medium-size pile” on the floor near “Oprah’s assistant’s desk.”

The office of Dispatch Editor Ben Marrison referred The Associated Press to a report about the matter on the The Poynter Institute of journalism’s website. He tells the site the newspaper takes the allegations seriously and that the cartoon is suspended pending investigation.

Stahler tells The Daily Cartoonist the resemblance is coincidental.