History Webcomic / BreakingCatNews

In 2024, the conservative-leaning mass media congomerate Gannett [[https://www.dailycartoonist.com/index.php/2024/02/20/the-great-gannett-comics-conspiracy-to-rid-the-nation-of-trudeaus-doonesbury/ "standardized" its newspapers' comic sections]]. Comics with a controversial bent such as ''ComicStrip/{{Doonesbury}}'' were dropped from the "Gannett 34"[[note]]coincidentally, or not, the week ''Doonesbury'' ran [[https://www.gocomics.com/doonesbury/2024/02/18?ct=v&cti=2148124 a Sunday strip with Civil War facts]][[/note]] along with a number of [[https://www.dailycartoonist.com/index.php/2024/02/24/the-real-gannett-conspiracy-chauvinism/ strips by women, nonwhites and LGBT artists]], including ''Breaking Cat News'', drastically reducing said artists' income. This move has [[https://www.washingtonpost.com/entertainment/2024/03/16/gannett-comics-women-cartoonists/ attracted its share of mainstream media attention]][[note]]Ms Dunn is interviewed in these articles[[/note]] and spawned [[https://www.gocomics.com/breaking-cat-news/2024/03/18 a week-long exposé]] in which the cats spoke directly to readers, presenting facts and suggesting solutions -- BreakingTheFourthWall for the first time in the strip's ten-year history.

* BreakingTheFourthWall: [[https://www.gocomics.com/breaking-cat-news/2024/03/18 The week of March 18, 2024]] saw Georgia Dunn using her strip as an actual broadcast studio. Tabitha directly addresses readers about the "restructuring" of newspaper comics pages by the Gannett syndicate[[note]]the largest U.S. newspaper publisher, owner of ''USA Today'', the Louisville ''Courier-Journal'' and the ''Indianapolis Star'' among others[[/note]]. [[https://www.dailycartoonist.com/index.php/2024/02/24/the-real-gannett-conspiracy-chauvinism/ A disproportionate number of comics by female artists were dropped]], including ''Breaking Cat News'', with a resulting loss of income for those creators. Many legacy strips like ''ComicStrip/{{Peanuts}}'' were kept, although the outspoken ''ComicStrip/{{Doonesbury}}'' [[https://www.dailycartoonist.com/index.php/2024/02/20/the-great-gannett-comics-conspiracy-to-rid-the-nation-of-trudeaus-doonesbury/ did not make the cut]]. The net result is ''more dead males than living females on the comics page.''

In 2024, the conservative-leaning mass media congomerate Gannett [[https://www.dailycartoonist.com/index.php/2024/02/20/the-great-gannett-comics-conspiracy-to-rid-the-nation-of-trudeaus-doonesbury/ "standardized" its newspapers' comic sections]]. Comics with a controversial bent such as ''ComicStrip/{{Doonesbury}}'' were dropped from the "Gannett 34"[[note]]coincidentally, or not, the week ''Doonesbury'' ran [[https://www.gocomics.com/doonesbury/2024/02/18?ct=v&cti=2148124 a Sunday strip with Civil War facts]][[/note]] along with a number of [[https://www.dailycartoonist.com/index.php/2024/02/24/the-real-gannett-conspiracy-chauvinism/ strips by women, nonwhites and LGBT artists]], including ''Breaking Cat News'', drastically reducing said artists' income. This move has [[https://www.washingtonpost.com/entertainment/2024/03/16/gannett-comics-women-cartoonists/ attracted its share of mainstream media attention]][[note]]Ms Dunn is interviewed in these articles[[/note]] and spawned a week-long exposé in which the cats spoke directly to readers, presenting facts and suggesting solutions -- BreakingTheFourthWall for the first time in the strip's ten-year history.

It has [[http://www.breakingcatnews.com/ its own website]]. It is also syndicated at [=GoComics=] [[http://www.gocomics.com/breaking-cat-news here]]. At the time of writing [=GoComics=] plans to offer the comic to newspapers as well. As of January 2022, about 150 papers have picked it up.

* BreakingTheFourthWall: The week of March 18, 2024 saw Georgia Dunn using her strip as an actual broadcast studio. Tabitha directly addresses readers about the "restructuring" of newspaper comics pages by the Gannett syndicate[[note]]the largest U.S. newspaper publisher, owner of ''USA Today'', the Louisville ''Courier-Journal'' and the ''Indianapolis Star'' among others[[/note]]. [[https://www.dailycartoonist.com/index.php/2024/02/24/the-real-gannett-conspiracy-chauvinism/ A disproportionate number of comics by female artists were dropped]], including ''Breaking Cat News'', with a resulting loss of income for those creators. Many legacy strips like ''ComicStrip/{{Peanuts}}'' were kept, although the outspoken ''ComicStrip/{{Doonesbury}}'' [[https://www.dailycartoonist.com/index.php/2024/02/20/the-great-gannett-comics-conspiracy-to-rid-the-nation-of-trudeaus-doonesbury/ did not make the cut]]. The net result is ''more dead males than living females on the comics page.''

* GoshDangItToHeck: When Beatrix, the four-months' kitten, is [[https://www.gocomics.com/breaking-cat-news/2020/10/02 nervous about getting microchipped]], she exclaims, "It's been the week from HECK, in a year of STRAIGHT-UP POOP!" (This was in 2020.) Then she says she [[LampshadeHanging doesn't mean to be using such grown-up language.]]

* NotAllowedToGrowUp: Georgia Dunn has frozen the characters at their current ages (aging the children up a tiny bit). She did this because she wanted to keep Baba Mouse. Baba is immensely old -- she was 26 in 2015 -- and could not have lived much longer. She is based on one of Georgia's real cats, and Georgia says she could not stand to lose her a second time. (The real Sir Figaro Newton died some time ago, but is still alive in the strip, as is Beatrix, who died when she was just four months old and remains a kitten in the strip. The real Lupin died of heart failure January 11, 2022, and the real Tommy (Admiral Thomas Whiskerstache) followed him July 7, 2022, but both of course will also remain active in the strip.)