Settlement terms were not disclosed. Instead, the parties issued the following joint-statement (and compare the bolded text with the dialogue in the cartoon above: hypocrisy anyone?):

The parties have settled the matter to their mutual satisfaction. The defendants did not intend to suggest that Bob Lobel has ever been intoxicated while on the air, and apologize to him for any harm caused him by the publication of the 'Get Fuzzy' cartoon. The terms of the settlement are confidential.

In addition, Bob Unger, Editor of the New Bedford Standard Times, issued an apology in his newspaper:

I want Mr. Lobel to know that we are sorry.

We didn't edit comic strips very carefully before (they come fully arranged on a page for us and all we have to do is add the advice strips that run alongside them and ship the page electronically to our Fairhaven printing plant), but I can tell you we pay closer attention to them now.

And while I agree that comic strip creators, along with political cartoonists, should have a good deal of freedom to criticize our elected officials and public figures in general, I believe that Mr. Conley overstepped the lines of what's considered acceptable comment by a longshot.

Only Mr. Conley knows whether or not the strip was intended as a personal attack or was simply a bad joke, but I believe it was sophomoric and mean-spirited, and United Feature shouldn't have let it get past its editors -- and The Standard-Times shouldn't have published it.

Readers will notice that we stopped running "Get Fuzzy" two weeks ago. The cancellation, I hope, makes a big point in a small way: The Standard-Times is not in favor of needlessly causing any individual, famous or not, public embarrassment -- in whatever form.

Newspapers have great power to help or to harm, and in this case we hurt someone for no reason.

Mr. Lobel, I'm sorry and we apologize.