The chimp cartoon that appeared in the New York Post was a crude and offensive thing. All the attempts by conservative apologists to portray it as anything other than a rather vile message about our President shows how low the other side will go. I have a deep respect for political cartoons, and the men and women who use this craft to add texture to the issues and personalities of the day. But there is also a code of conduct that should be observed when making a drawing, and a point. This cartoon crossed the line by at least a light year.
While I have had many years of disagreement with Rupert Murdoch about his form of ‘journalism’, and have no illusions about the type of person that Rupert Murdoch is, I must admit a bit of shock that he would personally apologize for the action of his paper regarding the cartoon. Maybe old age is tempering his soul. Who knows what undercurrents propelled him to take this action. Regardless, it was the correct one to take. I do however disagree with Murdock that no one should see this as racist. How could one not??!! Also I have serious issues with the idea of assassination that underlines this vile and offensive cartoon.
There must be some joke here to be made about hell freezing over and monkeys flying. (Anyone know the last time Rupert Murdoch wrote a personal letter of apology for his paper?) Anyway, as sort-of speculated by Michael Wolffthe other day it seems that Rupe was not happy about the chimpanzee cartoon. Not sure anyone really anticipated this sort of responseso quickly — there’s definitely no ‘sort-of’ about it — however it appears that Rupe hopes to put an end to the controversy before it gets any further out of hand. It remains to be seen whether this will assuage the protesters and it’s interesting to note there is no mention made of editor Col Allan or his future at the paper.
As the Chairman of the New York Post, I am ultimately responsible for what is printed in its pages. The buck stops with me.
Last week, we made a mistake. We ran a cartoon that offended many people. Today I want to personally apologize to any reader who felt offended, and even insulted.
Over the past couple of days, I have spoken to a number of people and I now better understand the hurt this cartoon has caused. At the same time, 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. It was not meant to be racist, but unfortunately, it was interpreted by many as such.
We all hold the readers of the New York Post in high regard and I promise you that we will seek to be more attuned to the sensitivities of our community.
CAFFEINATED POLITICS 
This is a racist cartoon, pure, clean and simple. Calling African-Americans monkeys implied or otherwise sends the country back 50+ years. The cartoonist and his editors should all be fired. There is no room for this type of editorial cartooning today.
No apology was necessary. Mr. Murdoch owed no one an apology and neither does Mr. Delonas the cartoonist. There is zero racism in the chimp cartoon. Zero. That a higly vocal minority led by a buffoon so publicly takes offense at this is just ridiculous.
I agree that calling an african american person a monkey is a racist statement. However the cartoon depicts former president bush as a monkey. They’re making the analogy that he did his job like a monkey. The undertone of assassination is a little dark but I don’t believe there was a racist statement made here. I could see the problem if it were the same cartoon about our new president, but this was obviously geared towards bush, a white man. He might was to go with a clown if he hopes to make any jokes about our new president. In fact he better stop making jokes because people tend to interpret everything as racist lately. If it’s truely racist than please stand up for the injustice. Come to think of it, I don’t remember how long it’s been since I saw a big racism scandle on the news, maybe the NAACP is just fishing for publicity? The bigger problem today is the way minorities use this type of thing to get public pity for them to obtain things they wouldn’t obtain otherwise. Well we live is such a terribly racist society that we are printing cartoons like this in our papers? Obviously we better start hiring only african american people to show we arn’t racist like the guy at the newspaper. That is racism, it has a positive impact on the african community but it is racism. Racism is judging people based on race. I get a better feeling knowing I earned something on my own, I don’t like things handed to me because I am of a certain race. If you truely want to end racism then we have to end it in all forms. This is a blatent example of what propogates racism. The cartoon didn’t show any signs of racism but when someone screams that it does people start thinking about it, and when people think about it, it happens.
What the heck are you upset about? Since the bill sucked they portrayed a monkey as the author (get it? The punch-line is that it was written by a monkey…(which is why it sucked). It’s just not as funny saying a dog or a cat wrote it, as they cannot write. Just think of all the commercials that use monkeys to make fun of things. Lighten up you whiny babies!
Hey Tom Jerkweed…you are WRONG…PERIOD. I guess what you are saying, is that you cannot portray any human as a monkey? Just think of all the times in TV history we’ve used Monkeys to substitute as humans. You whiny babies take offense because some paranoid black person might get offended because at some point someone might have called them a monkey. Is that what you’re saying? You people are the worst, twisting EVERYTHING into a racist issue. Let that S&%T DIE! I guess it won’t go away until people like you finally leave this Earth. That day can’t come soon enough. Young people of today do not think this way, and if they do, it’s only because old “Hold-overs” are still alive.