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Newspaper sorry for 'Obama ape' cartoon
Ed Harris20.02.09
The New York Post has apologised to people offended by a cartoon that critics said was racist because it likened Barack Obama to a chimpanzee.
The newspaper acknowledged that the cartoon had drawn controversy because African-Americans and others saw it as a depiction of the president.
"This most certainly was not its intent; to those who were offended by the image, we apologise," the paper said in an editorial on its website headlined "That Cartoon." The paper said: "It was meant to mock an ineptly written federal stimulus bill. Period."
The cartoon of a policeman shooting an ape played on the real shooting of a pet chimpanzee that attacked its owner's friend in Connecticut this week. A police officer in the cartoon says, "They'll have to find someone else to write the next stimulus bill."
The cartoon was published on Wednesday - the day after Mr Obama signed into law a $787billion economic rescue package.
Demonstrators led by civil rights activist Al Sharpton chanted "End racism now!" outside the skyscraper headquarters of the newspaper's parent company in Manhattan yesterday. They called for the jailing of Rupert Murdoch, whose international media conglomerate News Corp owns the Post.
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