NYPost: That Cartoon

[Harold Tuttle]

http://www.nypost.com/seven/02192009/postopinion/editorials/that_cartoon_155984.htm

Last updated: 9:21 am
February 20, 2009
Posted: 8:00 pm
February 19, 2009

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.

[41magsnub]

Best non-apology ever.

[Sergeant Bob]

Read some of the comments on the story. The vitriol that is spewed is incredible.

[Manedwolf]

The Post is not the newspaper for the handwringing liberals sipping their nonfat soy lattes on the Upper East Side or being professional neohippie activists in the Village. They have the Times to read to each other when they commisserate about how much they hate America.

The Post is for cabbies, construction workers, hardcore brokers who yell into their phones and people who finish every sentence with "Or WHAT?" It is for people who have an American flag outside their business, even if it's paired with and above the flag of the nation they came from. It's in-your-face, blunt, and downright rude and crude at times, but it tells the story.

That's why New York has two newspapers. And the liberals haaaaaaaate the Post, and always have hated it.

[Firethorn]

I'd heard Bush compared to a chimp so often that when I saw it I was confused and wondering why they took so long to release the picture; then I wondered if it had something to do with the chimp that was shot by police I read about a little bit before.  Basically, the cartoon confused me because I didn't(and still mostly don't) understand the context.

It wasn't until they had somebody on npr explaining about how it refered to Obama because he's black and blacks were often depicted as simians that I found out about that interpretation.

Of course, to go by the guy doing the explaining, my not making that connection would be considered 'disturbing'.

[Perd Hapley]

I think this incident has exposed a whole, post-racial generation to a racial smear that was slowly being forgotten.  I, for one, did not learn about the simian/African slur until early adulthood, at about the same time I was shocked to learn that Black people supposedly eat fried chicken and watermelon.  As a white person raised by and among chicken-and-melon consuming white folk, I still don't get that one.  And I am still looking for any human being of any race that does not like watermelon. 

[digitalandanalog]

You know something...

When I saw that cartoon I immediately saw that it was a smear on Congress and the Pres for having the brain power of monkeys when it comes that crapulus bill they are promising to save us all with.

I never saw any racism until a racism monger like Sharpton started polluting society with his garbage about this little piece of art.

Some people just need to shut up. The day that people like him die is good day for people of all races.

Hurry up and die Al

[makattak]

I think this incident has exposed a whole, post-racial generation to a racial smear that was slowly being forgotten.  I, for one, did not learn about the simian/African slur until early adulthood, at about the same time I was shocked to learn that Black people supposedly eat fried chicken and watermelon.  As a white person raised by and among chicken-and-melon consuming white folk, I still don't get that one.  And I am still looking for any human being of any race that does not like watermelon. 

I grew up in a small town in the middle of Illinois.

I would guess at least 75% of the older generations are racist there.

Personally? I simply don't consider race. When I meet someone, I try to figure out who and what they are. Race doesn't seem important to me.

For people like me, it was obvious what that cartoon was about- the morons who wrote the bill.

For people who see nothing but race- OBVIOUSLY it was about race.

I read some of the comments on the NY Post page where some people were outraged anyone could look at that and not see a racial slur.

Funny, I thought that was what we were aiming for- a society where people DON'T SEE RACE. (Where men are judged by the content of their character and not the color of their skin.)

Why, then, are liberals outraged by the people who HAVE gotten past race?

[roo_ster]

And, to top off this whole exercise in absurdity, one last bit of absurdity so concentrated, it has collapsed on itself and created an absurdity singularity out of which no absurdity will ever again escape.

Welcome to your new, absurdity-free* universe.



http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/02/19/john-gibson-compares-eric_n_168377.html

John Gibson Did Not Compare Eric Holder To Monkey With Bright Blue Scrotum
UPDATE: The Huffington Post has learned that the below video has been doctored. We regret the error and apologize to Mr. Gibson. John Gibson never compared Eric Holder to a monkey with a bright blue scrotum.

Rather, as seen in the unedited video below, Gibson played audio of Holder saying "nation of cowards" -- so his full, unedited remarks were:

"We were talking about Eric Holder today on the radio and his comment that this is a nation of cowards."

The video was doctored to include Trace Gallagher's voice saying, "bright blue scrotum" where Gibson played Holder's "nation of cowards" remark. The Huffington Post does not know the source of the video's doctoring — it was picked up off TVNewser.



* Well, there are a few absurdities to mop up.  Penguins, for instance.

[Balog]

Showcasing HuffPo's journalistic integrity.

[Harold Tuttle]

unfortunately one can not wrap fish with a web news blog

[Manedwolf]

unfortunately one can not wrap fish with a web news blog

You don't want to wrap fish with the Huffington Post in the first place. It would make the fish smell bad!

[Lee]

I could MAYBE see a racial angle had not a chimp eaten the face off a woman and got shot just a day or two  before.
It's kinda ironic though, considering that libs are always going on about primates being our brothers and such, then getting all bent out of shape when a comparison is drawn.

[bedlamite]

Do I detect a double standard here

[Harold Tuttle]

last time i checked, isn't legislature written by the legislative branch?

Its a well done cartoon, I wonder what alternative concepts would work in the thought balloon

[Perd Hapley]

Its a well done cartoon

No, it's not.  It's a very lame cartoon, even if no one took offense at it. 

[grampster]

Ditto what Makattak said.

With leftists what is good for the goose is never good for the gander.