The cartoon depicted two police officers, one holding a smoking gun, standing in front of a dead chimpanzee with two bullet holes in it. One of the officers was saying to the other “They’ll have to find someone else to write the next stimulus bill.”
“Rupert Murdoch appears to be living on a different planet,” said Council Member Bill Deblasio. “Council Member David Yassky called the cartoon hate speech and said that it needed to be met with “justice speech.”
Benjamin Jealous, president of the NAACP, called the cartoon a “racist, terrorist attack on the dignity of our president and a suggestion to end his life.”
“Right in the middle of Black History month we don’t need the media trying to tear us apart,” said Jealous. “We need the Post to tell us how they will fix this, not just apologize. They need to fire, they need to discipline, they need to come up with a strategy for diversity.”
The crowd of protesters numbering approximately 50 chanted, “Where’s Mayor Bloomberg?” “This is not the first time something like this has happened, we need to shut that hate rag down,” said New York City Council Member Charles Barron.
There was talk of the cartoon being a death threat to the president, and more than one speaker called on the secret service for a full investigation into the Post and News Corp. “The New York Post has never reported their diversity numbers to the American Society of Newspaper Editors,” said New York City Council Member Leroy Comrie.
“I have had conversations with Post editors about the situation and I can assure you—without a doubt—that the only intent of that cartoon was to mock a badly written piece of legislation,” said Murdoch in a public apology. “It was not meant to be racist, but unfortunately, it was interpreted by many as such.”
“I’d like to thank the New York Post for revealing to everybody that we do not live in a post-racial society and for bringing the entire community together,” said one of the speakers, “Murdoch has opened a wound that can’t be healed by a half-hearted apology.”
Australian-born Murdoch owns media company News Corp. which is large enough to affect political thought on a global scale.
According to a Businessweek article, “His satellites deliver TV programs in five continents, all but dominating Britain, Italy, and wide swaths of Asia and the Middle East. He publishes 175 newspapers, including the New York Post and The Times of London. In the U.S., he owns the Twentieth Century Fox Studio, Fox Network, and 35 TV stations that reach more than 40 percent of the country ... His cable channels include fast-growing Fox News, and 19 regional sports channels. In all, as many as one in five American homes at any given time will be tuned into a show News Corp. either produced or delivered.”
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