If you haven't yet read it, click here to read the story about the cartoon published by The New York Post today. The cartoon, seen below, has become a major controversy, not only nationally, but internationally. Thanks to the right-wing owned Post (Rupert Murdoch), America is looking like a less than decent place to live. A place where the 44th president is in fact, depicted as a very dead and rabid chimpanzee.
On the Huffington Post, Sam Stein reports that in the actual newspaper today, the cartoon page was preceded by a page with an image of President Obama signing the stimulus bill, as seen below.
In the page preceding a New York Post cartoon that depicts drafters of the stimulus legislation as a gun-downed chimpanzee, the paper published a large photo of Barack Obama signing that very piece of legislation.
And according to The New York Times, a newsroom employee at the Post reported a major backlash via telephone. The employee also indicated that many Post staff members were themselves upset.
A newsroom employee at The Post, who spoke on condition of anonymity because employees were not permitted to comment on the matter, said its newsroom received many calls of complaints on Wednesday morning after the publication of the cartoon. “Every line was lit up for several hours,” the employee said. “The phones on the city desk have never rung like that before.”
On my earlier story, Lyn (see below for more info on Lyn) left a comment as to her opinion. It is a comment, the content of which, has been echoed across the net today by many other right wingers. And it is a load of unadulterated crap. Bolding is mine, comment is Lyn's:
NO it does not imply violence against any elected official. It's just a cartoon.
Mr. Delonas has free speech rights. His cartoon makes a critical assessment of the frenzied politics that gave us the Obama stimulus/fraud package.
There is no racism in this cartoon. Get over it people. It's a cartoon.
Oh please, darlin', let's just briefly examine the 'parody' parallel. According to the NY Post Editor in Chief, "It was a clear parody of..."
So, a chimp on Xanax, in an unprovoked attack, almost kills a woman and has to be shot and killed by police = legislators and/or the President writing the stimulus legislation.
Yeah! I get it! That's a REAL KNEE-SLAPPER! I bet the woman who had her face ripped off by the chimp might have a thing or two to say about that!
And hey, that doesn't even address the issue of how black Americans have traditionally been portrayed as apes or ape-like in political cartoons for too damn many years. This sort of transparent racist ugliness is just another disgusting addition to a series dating back to the days of slavery in America.
Furthermore, and most importantly, the depiction of violence perpetrated on a rabid chimpanzee equated with either the President or with our legislators, is completely sick and inappropriate, and has not got a damn thing to do with free speech! Remember "incitement to violence"?
Recent Comments