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NY Post's Editorial Cartoon Mea Sorta Culpa
By
Jen Chung
Published Feb 20, 2009
Modified Feb 20, 2009
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By
Jen Chung
Published Feb 20, 2009
Modified Feb 20, 2009
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Two days after controversy erupted when the NY Post ran an editorial cartoon that involved a dead chimp killed by police and a reference to the federal stimulus package, the NY Post has finally apologized. In a way.
Facing accusations that cartoonist Sean Delonas (and Post editors) were referring to President Obama (there's a history of racist depictions of African-Americans and other non-white groups as primates), an editorial titled "That Cartoon" explains:
Wednesday's Page Six cartoon - caricaturing Monday's police shooting of a chimpanzee in Connecticut - has created considerable controversy.
It shows two police officers standing over the chimp's body: "They'll have to find someone else to write the next stimulus bill," one officer says.
It was meant to mock an ineptly written federal stimulus bill.
Period.
But it has been taken as something else - as a depiction of President Obama, as a thinly veiled expression of racism.
This most certainly was not its intent; to those who were offended by the image, we apologize.
However, there are some in the media and in public life who have had differences with The Post in the past - and they see the incident as an opportunity for payback.
To them, no apology is due.
Sometimes a cartoon is just a cartoon - even as the opportunists seek to make it something else.
The opportunists the Post is referring to would include the Reverend Al Sharpton, who held a protest outside the Post's office yesterday. Sharpton issued a statement as well, promising to discuss the Post's "apology" during another rally this evening at 5 p.m. Sharpton said, "Though we think it is the right thing for them to apologize to those they offended, they seem to want to want to blame the offense on those who raised the issue, rather than take responsibility for what the Post did... All of us can only wish the New York Post had taken a more mature position when the issue was first raised rather than belatedly coming up with a conditional statement after people began mobilizing and preparing to challenge the waiver of News Corp in the City where they own several television stations and newspapers."
Sharpton plans to be outside the Post's offices (6th Avenue and 49th Street) at 5 p.m. with director Spike Lee. Gawker wonders how this will affect Delonas's children's book sales. Our question: Is "That Cartoon" a reference to "That One"?
Tagged
editorial cartoon
ny post
protest
racist
reverend al sharpton
sean delonas
Jen Chung
Jen Chung is a former WNYC and Gothamist editor.
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