The New York Post's Controversial Cartoon
When I first saw The New York Post cartoon I had mixed feelings. I saw right away that the cartoon was offensive. I agree that it is inappropriate and desensitized to people's feelings and race but I was astonished by the uproar and drama that people let this cartoon create. If people were offended by the cartoon why create so much publicity about it? At least that's my personal opinion.
The controversial cartoon in The New York Post was created by Sean Delonas a longtime cartoonist. Delonas claimed that if the cartoon was portraying anyone it would be Majority Leader Harry Reid or Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi. The New York Post is owned by NEWSCORP, which is owned by Rupert Murdoch who we all know does not apologize for anything. In fact, during the 2008 presidential campaign The New York Post ran a story claiming that Mrs. Obama had stayed in Waldorf-Astoria, a five star hotel and rang up an outrageous bill on room service. Later, it was found that Mrs. Obama did not stay in the particular hotel but also that she was not even in the same city. Murdoch's corporation was quick to blame bad sources.
The original non-apology by the New York Post's editor, Col
Allen came before Murdoch's apology. The
original apology is inconsiderate because it does nothing to note that it was
not intended to be racist but that the newspaper can see why people were
offended. The first non-apology takes a
shot at the Rev. Al Sharpton when it claims that people are using this cartoon
for a means of payback. Sharpton is a
well-known activist and he is constantly searching for media attention. Eventually, Murdoch made a public apology for
the cartoon, which
Eugene Robinson of the Washington Post brought up the question of diversity within The New York Post's staff with Keith Olbermann. Robinson claimed that no African American in this country would let this cartoon be published in a newspaper that he or she worked for. Robinson points out that this is a great lesson as to why diversity in the workforce is so important. I agree with Robinson that diversity is extremely important but is there really no diversity at The New York Post?
I agree that the cartoon is appalling and offensive. It clearly depicts the author of the legislation for the stimulus bill as a monkey. Since the legislation for the stimulus bill is President Obama's work it is clearly him that is characterized as the monkey. This brings up a very touchy issue that still exists in our country, racism. Throughout history African Americans have been referred to as monkeys in a racist manner. The cartoon insinuated that President Obama should be shot for his legislation, which is absurd. It is outrageous to insinuate that anyone should be shot and killed especially the people leading our country no matter what your political beliefs are. However, President Obama would not be the first president referred to as a monkey. Throughout George W. Bush's presidency he was often referred to as a monkey as well. However, I do recognize that there is a difference in calling Bush a monkey versus calling President Obama a monkey. Either way it is despicable that anybody and especially the media would refer to any of our nation's leaders as monkeys. I would like to see the name-callers try to lead an entire nation through such a troublesome period of time and see how they like being referred to as monkeys.
The actions of those who have referred to Bush and President Obama as monkeys have acted unpatriotic and bad-mannered. In regards to this cartoon, apologies have been made and reputations have been damaged. Why is this not enough for the media and society? Is this really the time to be raising such an uproar about a cartoon in a newspaper? I understand everyone needed time to vent and retaliate but its time to move on. I am sick of hearing about a controversial cartoon when people could be spending more time talking about ways to fix our economy.
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