The New York Post, which was the subject of a protest outside its Midtown headquarters and continued criticism from elected officials on Thursday over the publication of an editorial cartoon that linked a chimpanzee to the economic stimulus package, has issued an apology “to those who were offended,” while maintaining that the cartoon was not intended to be racist.
The cartoon has been widely criticized as making an implicit comparison between the chimpanzee — a reference to a chimpanzee that was shot to death by a police officer in Connecticut on Monday after it brutally attacked a friend of its owner — and President Obama, who signed the stimulus package into law on Tuesday.
On Thursday evening, The Post published on its Web site the following editorial, which a spokeswoman said would also be published in its Friday print edition:
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.
Hours after the cartoon appeared on Wednesday morning, The Post received hundreds of complaints from readers and criticism from Gov. David A. Paterson, Senator Kirsten E. Gillibrand, the Rev. Al Sharpton on others.
Those complaints continued into Thursday.
Councilman Bill de Blasio, a Brooklyn Democrat, said in a statement:
We now live in a time when our nation can make real and substantive progress on race relations. However, commentary like the offensive cartoon published yesterday by The New York Post only sets us back. There is a growing pattern of certain media outlets choosing sensationalism over sensitivity and fear over facts. All of us have a responsibility to demand better from the media and ourselves.
Mr. Sharpton also held a protest outside The Post. Also issuing statements condemning the cartoon were United States Representative Gregory W. Meeks of Queens, State Senator Hiram Monserrate of Queens, State Senator Rubén Díaz Sr. of the Bronx, Councilman Charles Barron of Brooklyn, the Rev. Herbert D. Daughtry and other community leaders. Mr. Díaz said in a statement:
During Black History Month, The New York Post has depicted the first black president of the United States as a chimpanzee – to draw a twisted parallel to the chimpanzee that was recently killed. Their cartoon does nothing but promote racism against our president and encourage further racism in our society. When Fernando Ferrer ran for mayor, The New York Post ran a bigoted cartoon of Fernando Ferrer and the Rev. Al Sharpton — without much consequence. The Post’s apparent racism is still in place – as demonstrated by their ugly cartoon in yesterday’s paper – and we will not tolerate it.
Both the 2001 cartoon to which Mr. Díaz referred, and the new cartoon about the chimpanzee, were drawn by Sean Delonas. The Post had no comment on whether it would discontinue using his work, as some critics have urged.
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