NY cartoon appears to link Obama to dead chimp

NY cartoon appears to link Obama to dead chimp

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The cartoon in Wednesday's Post by Sean Delonas shows a dead chimp and two police officers, one with a smoking gun.

The caption reads, "They'll have to find someone else to write the next stimulus bill."

(visit the link for the full news article)

The New York Post has always been known to be a very Conservative paper. The fact that they are not "fans" of our new President is certainly no surprise to anyone and that is perfectly alright.

Personally, I don't like most politicians myself. I find the vast majority of them to be very self serving and find most of them to be as far from "public service" as possible. That certainly makes me the ideal candidate to appreciate the biting political cartoons that papers like the Post run. Most of them dance across the line between funny and offensive very carefully but always make a point.

This one however is a whole other level. Apparently the link changes daily based on when new cartoons are submitted so I will link the image itself instead of just the link to the cartoonist's page.



Whatever the intention was, I don't think this is funny. I've got my own issues with the stimulus bill, as I think most of us do, but to tie these two news stories together in such an offensive manner is disgraceful in my opinion.

The Post always takes potshots at Democrats in office. It's been that way since I was able to read. But I don't believe I have ever seen the usually hyper-political Post reach a level like this. To me, comparing the President of the United States (or any elected official) to a crazy chimp that needed to be put down is offensive no matter how you look at it.

A new low in political coverage and the news media?

hosted.ap.org
(visit the link for the full news article)

[edit on Wed, Feb 18th 2009 by Djarums]

There seems to be two threads about this non-event. So I will just copy my comment from the other thread.

I am surprised ANYBODY is seeing this as racist. When I think of all the pictures implying that Bush was a chimp (I'll add a couple of links below). The race card is getting really old - the stimulus bill does look like a cartload of chimps wrote it with crayons on toilet paper. So I think it's fair comment.

Pic One

Pic 2

Pic 3

Pic 4

If you want a few more let me know.

I think that the major point of contention here is the implicit communication that Obama be shot or "put down" for the stimulus bill. Not only is it disturbing for a major newspaper to indirectly advocate it by printing it but coupled with the latent racism that does exist make this a bit different then comparing Bush to a simian.

So many people are qui9ck to demonize Obama in his first few days and the inherent omission from all of his attackers is that his actions are necessarily mixed with the actions of not only Congressional counterparts, or his cabinet, but that of the American people.

One man does not a nation make or break and the BS spewed assuming that to be the case is an ignorant lashing out of frustrated people who don't live in their perfect world.

Partisanship at its' most effective and most deplorable state.

In my opinion.

I don't know if anyone paid attention a couple days ago but Reinhardt the market predictor dude said something on his site about 'when a chimp appears on state media, the market will not be doing good' (or something to that effect)

www.enterprisecorruption.com

Just noting the coincidence.

I did not vote for Obama, but even I think this cartoon goes a bit too far. The implication is clear.

While I agree that a barrel of monkeys could have probably done a better job at coming up with a stimulus plan than Congress and Obama did, most of us know that and we didn't need a tasteless cartoon to get the point across.

when I first saw this I started laughing!
I think they have a double meaning behind it but who cares, remember the guy that made the curious george shirts that said "Obama '09"

the four monkey hands sure would have came in handy yesterday though when obama had to use 10 different pens to sign the stimulus bill.

Mynaeris, if you wouldn't mind, please link to the other thread dealing with this because I tried searching using the cartoonists name, the word obama & cartoon, and various other search strings and found nothing.

Also, if you wouldn't mind, please look up the word offensive in whatever dictionary you prefer. Then look up the word racist in the same dictionary.

You'll note that the two have very different definitions.

I stated pretty clearly in my post that I (and apparently a few other people) find the cartoon very offensive.

To me, comparing the President of the United States (or any elected official) to a crazy chimp that needed to be put down is offensive no matter how you look at it.

Those were my words.

They called Bush a chimp, a monkey and an ape for eight years. There were plenty of cartoons depicting him as such, too.

Normally, I'd consider it to be offensive, but in this particular case, I'd say that turnabout is fair play. The other side started this. Don't whine and cry when it gets thrown back at you.

Not that I condone this cartoon or what it implies, but I've seen worse cartoons about Bush over the last 8 years.

It goes both ways, whether people like it or not.

Am I wrong that this is more open to interpretation? Obama didn't write the bill himself, right?

I think the cartoon goes too far (if in fact it was meant to be Obama), but its nothing new. Like someone else posted Bush and Condi Rice were regularly drawn as monkeys in political cartoons. There were even movies and merchandise based on the assassination of Bush.

I find the selective outrage by the media very predictable.





[edit on 18-2-2009 by Kyūzō]

reply to post by vor78


Oh, the other side started it so this is ok? Real mature way to look at things. Kind of reminds me of "Nanny-nanny-boo-boo".....

I don't like Obama and I certainly don't like Congress, but this cartoon is uncalled for and unnecessary.

A good point Irish M1ck, a good point.

Although I think most people would assume that it is Obama.

reply to post by nyk537


And, that's probably the whole point of the cartoon.

Originally posted by vor78
Normally, I'd consider it to be offensive, but in this particular case, I'd say that turnabout is fair play. The other side started this. Don't whine and cry when it gets thrown back at you.

How is this turn about?

Because the Dems have majority now?

What a ridiculous thing to say and a very simplistic attitude. The situation is different, the issues are different, the people are different and depicting a metaphorical murder of a President who has been in office for about a month is as ignorant as it gets.

It highlights the fact that people are looking at party lines and not the details. Their is no actual analytical thought occurring in many situations...rather just reactive opinions based on irrationally associated experiences and perceptions.

There is no turn about here...

Edit for spelling.

[edit on 18-2-2009 by MemoryShock]

reply to post by nyk537


I guess. I mean, I assume it would just be who you want to place the blame on. I would have laughed if no one said, "Hey, look they are making fun of Obama".

I would have just assumed he/she is calling Congress a bunch of monkeys or something along those lines.

I guess I can see the racists side of this. I took it as more along the lines that we have a bunch of monkeys running the country at least that's how I feel most of the time anyways.

And comparing members of Congress to dead chimps that had to be killed is less offensive?

I don't know why people are coming up with answers that this is ok based on who it's about or based on what has transpired in the past.

The important point (at least in my mind) is that this is unbelievably offensive and represents a new low in political coverage and/or satire.

reply to post by MemoryShock


I'd say that's nothing new. I've heard all of the extremist right-wingers come out foaming at the mouth about Obama being assassinated. Their wet dream appears to be assassination, while they will settle for complete failure.

I think they might have a nervous breakdown if he makes it 8 years.