Update: Friday morning, Feb 20th. After first asserting it had done nothing wrong, the NY Post finally made a half-hearted apology last night. There was a rally planned for this evening at 5pm, and it seems like Al Sharpton and other groups who took offense, will be mulling over the next step. The boycott is not entirely off until people and groups come together with a decision and next steps. More info at the National Action Network: here.
Ian and I batted around a lot of titles for this one. Anyway, there are so many reasons to boycott the Post: If you want to stand up for respect for African-Americans; if you want to stand up for respect for the presidency; or if you want to denounce the really, truly creep overtone of violence portrayed in that cartoon that merged the stimulus package with the story of the chimpanzee.
One headline, I thought it would be just a tad hypocritical of us to write, was: “If you voted for Obama…boycott the NY Post!” That strategy would be brilliantly effective, though, because, you know, a lot of people voted for Obama. Ian and I both voted for Cynthia McKinney. But, we still can’t abide by the racism and viciousness of that cartoon.
It is interesting that conservative publisher, and new American, Rupert Murdoch, is behind this thing. Wikipedia notes: “On September 4, 1985, Murdoch became a naturalized citizen in order to satisfy the legal requirement that only US citizens were permitted to own American television stations.” So, he comes to our country, becomes a citizen only to further exploit us and monopolize our public discourse with his media monopoly, and then he disses our president. Interesting.
I will post excerpts from the Guardian UK story. Also, the link to the Daily News story. It is not that the Daily News is the best newspaper in the world. But, since they are rivals with the NY Post, they are going to town on this story. You can find every picture, video, and related article you would ever want at the Daily News article: here.
(Excerpt from) guardian.co.uk / AP
‘Racist’ New York Post boycotted in chimp row
Hundreds of demonstrators rallied to boycott the New York Post yesterday after it published a cartoon that appeared to compare Barack Obama to a chimpanzee. Demonstrators led by civil rights activist Al Sharpton chanted “End racism now!” outside the Manhattan offices of News Corp, which runs the Post, and called for the jailing of owner Rupert Murdoch…
Filed under: Barack Obama, local, media, New York State Politics, News, Political Websites, president, progressive politics, rants, US Politics Tagged: | cartoon, chimpanzee, media, NY Post, Obama, Post, racism, Rupert Murdoch
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