Post-cartoon donation rejected by Texas A(and)M

Texas A(and)M University turned down 10,000 dollars The Arizona Republic sent after publishing a controversial editorial cartoon.
University President Ray Bowen wrote the Phoenix daily to say the contribution for the accident's victim fund was "a calculated effort to manage the public-relations problem now confronting your newspaper," according to a Dec. 8 Republic story.
Republic Editorial Page Editor Keven Willey said the donation "was a token of our sincerity" that wasn't "inappropriate."
Steve Benson's Nov. 19 "Texas bonfire traditions" cartoon showed a burning Branch Davidian compound in Waco, a burning cross in Jasper (where a black man was dragged to death), and logs from the Texas A(and)M tragedy (E(and)P, Nov. 27, p. 2).
Readers, many of them Texans who saw the cartoon on the Republic Web site, protested via a torrent of e-mail messages and phone calls that eventually surpassed 8,000. The Republic pulled the cartoon Nov. 22 and apologized, saying the three tragedies shared "no meaningful linkages." Benson saw linkages because the events all "caused needless deaths."
(Editor & Publisher WebSite:http:www.mediainfo.com) [Caption]
(copyright: Editor & Publisher December 11, 1999) [Caption]