New York protester objects to the racist depiction of President Barack Obama in the Post. Hundreds marched around the newspaper offices owned by billionaire Rupert Murdock.
Originally uploaded by Pan-African News Wire File Photos
AFP, NEW YORK--HUNDREDS of protesters including film director Spike Lee called for a boycott of The New York Post on Friday, after its "tepid apology" for a political cartoon of a monkey they believe alludes to President Barack Obama.
"Don’t buy the Post. Shut them down," demonstrators shouted outside News Corporation headquarters of media tycoon Rupert Murdoch, who owns the tabloid.
The protesters, most of them African-American, said they have gathered 4 000 signatures asking businesses to stop advertising in the Post unless its editor-in-chief is removed.
The cartoon that ran on Wednesday on Page 6 of the tabloid showed a policeman killing a monkey, which the newspaper said referred to an incident in Connecticut on Monday in which an officer shot dead a chimpanzee that had seriously injured a woman.
In the drawing, another police officer comments: "They’ll have to find someone else to write the next stimulus Bill."
Sharpton on Wednesday called the cartoon "troubling" in view of past racist insults that compared African-Americans to monkeys, and said the cartoon was directly linked to Obama’s signing of an economic stimulus Bill the day before.
A loud protest on Thursday outside News Corp prompted a newspaper editorial saying the cartoon "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," said the editorial published on Friday.
"This most certainly was not its intent; to those who were offended by the image, we apologise."
Obviously unsatisfied, the protesters headed by Sharpton and Lee pressed for a boycott of the tabloid.
"That cartoon insulted everybody," said the film director. — AFP.
3 comments:
Hmm... I remember the last time people got all up in arms about a stupid cartoon - religious zealots protesting a depiction of Muhammed.
People, lighten up already. It is not a constitutional right to never be offended.
Rupert Murdoch is an evil man with far too much control on our media. Do more than protest. Hit him where it really hurts. Please boycott his papers and tell those that advertise on his networks that you will no longer support him if they continue to give him their advertising dollars.
It is time to change the way we do business in this country and we shouldn't accept his lame apology.
Everything Matters
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xy6uVvM4iF8
I will say that the cartoonist did not think about the possible perception of the cartoon, but people are going a little overboard.
It's a statement about the stimulus bill being crazy and ridiculous, like something a monkey would write - which would tie in with the Chimp attack.
I guess next time he could use a clown - are there any racial connotations associated to a clown?
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