(Click on image to ENLARGE) It only took Australian media tycoon Rupert Murdoch a week to realize that the chimp cartoon that ran in his most beloved paper, New York Post, left a lot of people seriously riled.
Murdoch finally broke his silence today on the cartoon that showed a dead chimp with two fresh bullet holes as one cop says to another, “Now they’ll have to find someone else to write the next stimulus bill.”
A statement in today’s Post reads:
As the Chairman of the New York Post, I am ultimately responsible for what is printed in its pages. The buck stops with me.
Last week, we made a mistake. We ran a cartoon that offended many people. Today I want to personally apologize to any reader who felt offended, and even insulted.
Over the past couple of days, I have spoken to a number of people and I now better understand the hurt this cartoon has caused. At the same time, I have had conversations with Post editors about the situation and I can assure you – without a doubt – that the only intent of that cartoon was to mock a badly written piece of legislation. It was not meant to be racist, but unfortunately, it was interpreted by many as such.
Not surprisingly — to anyone outside the Post’s offices — many read it as comparing President Obama to Travis the chimp, who had been shot dead by police after going on a bloody rampage in Stamford, Conn., just days earlier.
Murdoch has a well-earned reputation for never backing down, but he clearly respects and admires President Obama and has always aligned himself with those in power. For him to issue an apology is a rare thing indeed.
But the apology Murdoch ran in today’s Post is, like the one that ran Thursday, somewhat half-hearted. While Murdoch reached out to “any reader who felt offended, and even insulted,” last week’s mea culpa was offered to “to those who were offended by the image.”
To his credit, however, Murdoch acknowledged that running the cartoon was “a mistake” and accepted full responsibility for it.
Rev. Al Sharpton, who has declared war on the Post, has planned a rally to respond to Murdoch’s apology from the steps of City Hall this morning.
Sharpton has called for the dismissal of both cartoonist Sean Delonas and Editor in Chief Col Allen, and has called for the FCC to no longer allow Murdoch to own two newspapers — the Post and Wall Street Journal — and two TV stations — Fox 5 and My9 WROR — in the same market.
(Source: NBC NY)
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14 Responses
what a cave in!
sharpton zul paygerin bkorov!!
Why was that lukewarm?
The Post has been getting trashier even by lowly media standards.
The cartoonist thought that Obama supporters aren’t smart enough to understand his cartoon, so he’ll never be criticized for drawing this cartoon! I bet most of those “people” demonstrating against this cartoon, have no clue what the cartoon meant!
How scary is it that Americans will have to step on eggshells with voicing thier opinions about Obama’s competence to run the country, because the president happens to be black .
He can call Palin a pig, but we can’t call him a monkey?
#6, if you need to stretch the truth to make a point, I guess you have the right to.
No one called Palin a pig with the context you are suggesting. Secondly, a reference of a monkey for a black person, in America, requires an understanding not for the blunt.
cartoon seems anti-chimp to me ..
GEVALD GESHRIGIN!!!
This had nothing to do with Obama. It didn’t look like Obama. Obama cannot write laws in this country but he signs them. The cartoon was CLEARLY referring to Congress & only illiterate fools would think otherwise.
I read the apology in this morning’s New York Post. It was beautiful. I agree with krunch. I don’t understand why anyone would call it lukewarm.
When Sharpton is a winner mankind is a loser.That’s the worst part of this whole episode.
4,
Obviously all the ObamaNation really doesnt get the cartoon because if they did they would shut their mouths instead of sounding stupid each and every time they open them.
This had nothing to do with Obama. It didn’t look like Obama. Obama cannot write laws in this country but he signs them. The cartoon was CLEARLY referring to Congress & only illiterate fools would think otherwise.
Once again we have caved in to the rabble rousers of the world and losers like Sharpton and his rotton gang of merry thieves.
Actually, Obama’s analogy about lipstick on a pig compared John McCain to a pig.
Mark,
You keep saying that “It didn’t look like Obama.” I don’t think anyone is saying that it does. The problem is that for a long, long, time, black people have been compared to monkeys. And this cartoon, however inadvertently, makes use of that association. Please don’t call people who think that the cartoon isn’t referring to Congress as “illiterate fools.” That’s insulting and pointless. I know that the President doesn’t write laws. But do a google search for “Obama stimulus plan” and see how many people are associating the authorship of the legislation to the President.