The New York Post published a cartoon Wednesday of two policemen who have slain the author of the stimulus package — a chimpanzee who lies in a pool of blood. The paper's defense: It was just good-hearted fun, no harm intended to the African-American president who devised and signed the package.
After two days of protests, the paper posted an editorial on its Web site Thursday evening saying the cartoon (on the Web at http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/02/19/new-york-posts-cartoon-ap_n_168427.html) was meant to mock the federal economic stimulus bill, but "to those who were offended by the image, we apologize."
The editorial also says some media and public figures who have long-standing differences with the paper saw the cartoon "as an opportunity for payback." The editorial calls them "opportunists" and says: "To them, no apology is due."
Perhaps a better defense for this tabloid owned by Rupert Murdock's media empire would be to hide behind its record of both insensitivity, and suggested violence, toward people of color.
During the Democratic primaries in late May 2008, Murdock's Fox TV News also aimed assassination humor at candidate Obama. As co-anchor Liz Trotta signed off her "Fair and Balanced" news broadcast she urged that "somebody knock off Osama, um, Obama — well both, if we could." [New York Times, May 27, 2008, 20A]
After two days of protests, the paper posted an editorial on its Web site Thursday evening saying the cartoon (on the Web at http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/02/19/new-york-posts-cartoon-ap_n_168427.html) was meant to mock the federal economic stimulus bill, but "to those who were offended by the image, we apologize."
The editorial also says some media and public figures who have long-standing differences with the paper saw the cartoon "as an opportunity for payback." The editorial calls them "opportunists" and says: "To them, no apology is due."
Perhaps a better defense for this tabloid owned by Rupert Murdock's media empire would be to hide behind its record of both insensitivity, and suggested violence, toward people of color.
During the Democratic primaries in late May 2008, Murdock's Fox TV News also aimed assassination humor at candidate Obama. As co-anchor Liz Trotta signed off her "Fair and Balanced" news broadcast she urged that "somebody knock off Osama, um, Obama — well both, if we could." [New York Times, May 27, 2008, 20A]
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