(Credit: Daily Mississippian)

“In hindsight we would not have published” a cartoon readers found offensive, Daily Mississippian‘s editor-in-chief Lacey Russell told media blogger Jim Romenesko.

The paper is the student newspaper of the Univ. of Mississippi.

Some readers complained that the cartoon advocated violence against women.

“Several editors on my staff looked at the cartoon, but most of the concern was with the sexual innuendo. We did not interpret it the way some of our readers did,” Russell said.

Russell told iMediaEthics by e-mail that the newspaper received four complaints about the cartoon.

“The cartoon was not an assigned topic. Each day of production we receive an email from our cartoonist with an attachment of a cartoon that will run in the following day’s paper,” Russell wrote. “We had no prior knowledge of this cartoon before we received it.”

The cartoon, labeled “Men and relationships,” showed male genitalia with the message “Kill her and never get another one,” the human heart with the message “Love her and protect her forever.” and a thought bubble saying  “Hey! Look at that one.”