News Corp.'s Founder Rupert Murdoch Issues Apology For Racist Chimp Cartoon Published in NY Post

I don't understand why News Corp. and the NY Post allowed the fallout from the chimp cartoon by Sean Delonas to get to this level, when they were about to face some serious opposition. Yeah, they were also facing a boycott of the newspaper and the company's products in general. The bottom line is that Murdoch has now admitted that President Obama was the intended target of this cartoon. They are within their rights to consider this a badly written piece of legislation, but they did not have to use a chimpanzee as the protagonist. Rupert Murdoch's apology, albeit late, may put this to rest to some people, but not to me. Here is the letter of apology in its entirety.

By RUPERT MURDOCH

Last updated: 3:16 am
February 24, 2009
Posted: 2:22 am February 24, 2009

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. Source: NY Post

Thank you and I hope all the other folks out there who feel that they can engage is such obvious race-baiting, will take heed and simply understand our position when we say: not this time to racist behavior. We must also be mindful of the fact that this isn't an isolated incident. The New York Post and Fox News Channel have engaged in a pattern of racist behavior for a long time and it has to stop. Murdoch rightly said that the buck stops with him. Well, it seems that he has ignored many more actions of this nature. President Obama deserves the respect of all Americans, including the wannabe white conservative nutjob Michelle Malkin who said that we owed Sean Delonas an apology.