Murdoch Apologizes for NY Post Cartoon

STATEMENT FROM RUPERT MURDOCH

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.

In his apology, Rupert Murdoch doesn't throw the Post editors and the cartoonist under the bus. He defends them as having no racist agenda. Murdoch stands by the fact that the cartoon is not meant to be a racist depiction.

Nonetheless, he clearly apologizes for offending the people who interpreted it as racist.

That's good. Even if that interpretation is misguided, there's certainly no harm in apologizing for publishing something that offended people.

I'm not really comfortable with the groveling by Murdoch. Sure, given the outrage, publishing the cartoon can be seen as a mistake. True enough. It's been an enormous headache and, thus, a mistake to those at the Post.

But was it a mistake to run a cartoon that directly blended two big news stories -- the stimulus bill and Travis the chimp run amok?

There was nothing racist about it. The cartoonist did not draw Obama as a chimp nor did he encourage the assassination of Obama.

So where's the mistake? Must the editorial page be an ape-free zone now? I guess that's the new standard.

I think anyone who was offended by the cartoon and still refuses to accept Murdoch's very clear apology really has a problem.

I don't know that his apology will be enough to satisfy the race baiters. I doubt that Al Sharpton and Julian Bond will go out and encourage people to buy the New York Post. I'd be surprised if they had the decency to accept Murdoch's apology.

What we have learned:

---No apes are allowed in political cartoons about the U.S. government as long as Obama is in office.

---It doesn't matter what the ape would represent. That's irrelevant.

---If an ape is used in a political cartoon, it's a racist, offensive, and terribly insensitive act.