Murdoch Apologizes for Cartoon But Says it Was Not Meant to be Racist
Tuesday, February 24th, 2009 at
2:13 pm
I’m not a big Rupert fan, but I think he got it exactly right.
I’ve been involved in a lively debate over this at Conservative Black Woman’s site, btw, if anyone is interested… check the comments.
Tagged with: Obama • Racial Issues • Sharpton
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This is exactly what the Sharpton’s and Jackson’s of the world want.
I think this is much to do about nothing. Some people simply see racism where there is none, simply because that is what goes through their praradigm.
Paul
Eat Well. Live Well.
PurpleGreenPops.com
I don’t agree precisely — I’d say it’s much ado about little. It was a cartoon that never should have seen the light of day, because the Post should have realized the potential implications. But I’m convinced that they simply didn’t make the connection between chimps and racial slurs. I don’t believe that connection was the purpose of the cartoon.
And besides, the cartoon just wasn’t funny or clever. In today’s Washington Post, Kathleen Parker provides a thorough analysis of why the cartoon just doesn’t work, apart from any racial implications.
I tried to post this a couple of days ago, but the button wouldn’t work:
My comment isn’t about Sharpton’s behavior directly, but about what amplifying the effect of this incident will do to political discourse.
First of all, I can’t believe that the cartoonist (irrespective of his politics) could have intended the racist interpretation people have suggested. It would be like Sean Hannity calling Obama the ‘N’ word on his TV show: no one would be so unbelievably stupid. The problem is that the cartoonist wasn’t clear enough in specifying whom he was comparing to a monkey, and that is incredibly stupid- but believably so.
The thing that really troubles me about this is the chilling effect it will have. Two or three weeks ago I was struck by how Obama was saying that he wanted to put an end to partisan rancor. He wanted the party traditionally opposed to expansion of government to support the largest spending increase in the history of, well of history. He was reversing the Mexico City Policy and pledging to fund stem cell research, but suggesting that the Pro-Life movement should work with him because his health care and education programs might reduce the rate of abortion.
It seemed to me that he was suggesting that all of the bitter infighting might disappear because he was going to ‘heal the divide’ in the country. So, I made a sketch for a cartoon which portrayed him as a wizard who magically wished away conflict and discord. A friend told me not to show it to anyone- because they might connect it to the recent “magic negro” controversy.
Now, I watch the Daily Show on a regular basis- so I pointed out that on one episode Jon Stewart had an “expectations meter” which ranged from ‘Normal President’ (a picture of Eisenhower) to ‘FDR-Like’ to ‘Gandalf’ (the good wizard from Lord of the Rings) to ‘Wizard FDR’ (FDR with a pointed hat), to Son of God (a picture of Jesus). My friend said that that was different because everyone knows that Stewart is an Obama supporter…
and that was all before this current flap.
ockraz, thanks, and I’m sorry you had trouble posting… someone else had trouble too, must be a Blogspot glitch.
Stewart is a funny man… it will be interesting to see how long it takes for him to take grief over poking fun at Obama.
Murdoch apologized for doing nothing wrong. Other people “misinterpreted” and felt “offended.” Then he promised not to do it again. The only thing he may have done wrong (following Ocraz’ Stewart analogy above) was not be the right person or of the correct group.
Remember the left compared Bush to a monkey all the time. The left explicitly fantasized about assassinating Bush. So there’s no reason to think Obama has a different standard–unless you’re racist. Besides Obama didn’t write the stimulus bill. Congress writes laws and president signs them.
How would you explain the double standard to a bright child? Just another irrational double standard.