Whether you voted for President Obama or not. Whether you like his stimulus and mortgage plans or not. Whether you think we are too politically correct or not.
That cartoon in the New York Post was unconscionable. The one that obviously likened the African-American president — as the writer of the stimulus bill — to that crazed chimpanzee recently in the news.
The First Amendment, of course, permits the tasteless and the unfunny. It can also countenance the racist masquerading as parody. And, alas, it can give cover to the sort of knuckle-dragging journalism the New York Post is notorious for. It was the Post’s perfect storm.
Then the Post made it worse with its PR 101 “apology” when reaction exceeded what it had expected — and desired — from its intentionally provocative black stereotype. It reiterated that its purpose was merely to mock the stimulus bill, but “to those who were offended by the image, we apologize.”
In other words: “We draw the cartoons; you’re free to draw the wrong conclusion. If you weren’t hip enough to get it because you’re some thin-skinned, politically-correct,
diversity-cuddling, knee-jerk liberal who doesn’t read the Post anyhow, we apologize.”