Newspaper Publishes Controversial Cartoon About Vegas Tragedy

The Bennington Banner, a small Vermont newspaper, issued an apology to its readers on Tuesday after publishing an “insensitive” editorial cartoon in the wake of the Las Vegas mass shooting.

The cartoon depicted a pile of outstretched bodies beneath the caption “Whatever happens in Vegas…”

The caption was a play off the city’s tourism slogan, “Whatever happens in Vegas stays in Vegas.” Frederic Rutberg, the president of the newspaper’s publishing company, said that the decision to run the cartoon was “made in haste” and “insensitive.”

The paper’s executive editor, Kevin Moran, wrote on Facebook that the newspaper staff regrets publishing the cartoon.

“Our interpretation of Randall Enos’ cartoon was that little would be done with regard to gun control measures in the United States even after such an unprecedented tragedy,” Moran’s statement reads. “We regret publishing the cartoon.”

Readers lashed out almost immediately on social media after the cartoon was published, calling it “disgusting” and “deplorable.”

Adding to the anger was the fact that Sandy Casey, a native of the nearby town Dorset, Vermont, was among the 58 killed in the mass shooting. Casey, a special education teacher, was living in Redondo Beach, Calif., at the time of the attack.

“The gravity of our error in judgment was magnified by the fact that one of victims of the unspeakable horror was a native of Dorset, whose family and friends must have been particularly offended by this cartoon,” Rutberg wrote.

Photo Credit: Twitter / @jmancota