No, no, *I* speculate that Murdoch thinks the cartoon should've shown the cops holding M16's instead of handguns.

And you should all listen to ME speculate, because I know Rupert Murdoch realllllly well.

Oh, please.

That is the entire purpose behind political cartoons. I did some homework once and found historical cartoons and they were far more offensive than most of what we see nowadays. It's hard to get away with anything really offensive in the current climate. Interestingly enough, some of the most offensive and thought provoking cartoons were by Dr. Seuss. It's worth doing some Googling to see them (I won't link - you know how to Google).

It's only unfortunate that the general tone of discourse today tends to reduce discussion to insults and dismissal instead of rational discourse. There were, however, some illuminating comments about the cartoon if people were willing to sort through the attacks.

We have him at least partially to blame for the Contract on America, the Clinton impeachment and the last 8 years of misrule. If he has had a change in political leaning it's way too late. He's already facilitated a worldwide depression and if there's any justice at all his companies will all go down along with the rest of them. I hope he ends up broke, deported and begging for loose change in Sydney.

This is the New York Post we're talking about, right... Nuff' said...

Your President is Black. There will be no speech, illustration or writing for the next 4 years. That is all, and thank you.

He represents the ideal Murdoch audience member. He probably has blown up the monkey cartoon and pasted the face of a certain person on it, and giggled while he did it.

No way Murdoch is going to be angry at this. Hell, he'll probably give the cartoonist his own animated show on Fox, replacing Family Guy. Better the kind of racism Murdoch approves of, than the random racist jokes that Hollywood sissy boy Seth McFarlane makes.

... it certainly did so in a calculated, cowardly way. Why not label the chimp "Obama" or make it clearer it was supposed to be him?

That's right - if the Post did that, they wouldn't be able to mount the passive-aggressive, "post-racial," "you're the real racist" defense conservatives have honed over the years.

Anyone who does not recognize this as racists is pretty ignorant of the racist history in this country. Ah but then racism is based ignorance.

Whether or not the cartoonist thought he was only using the Chimpanzee as a reference to the one who attacked a woman, the editors should have considered the historical use of the use chimpanzees to depict blacks in racists literature.

What more could we expect from a Murdock owned newspaper. I bet Hannity and Beck at Fox are defending the cartoonist.

A few years ago when doing so ancestor research, I found a cartoon from the 1800s which showed a scale in perfect balance. On one side of the scale was was a white chimpanzee sitting with the word IRISH on it's chest and on the other side a black chimpanzee on the other with the N word. You see at one time, during the height of Irish immigration from the Irish Famine, Irish were considered the White Ns.

I immediately sent a copy sent it to my older racist brothers.

Who of course don't think they are racists.

that will desire access to President Obama over the next 4 years.

hardly - it's his damn American Flagship paper. He's probbably po'd becuase he's getting flack and is losing dollars.

This is the kind of shit bomb that Murdoch owned properties do though.

Fox News couldn't tell the truth about anything unless it was approved by their propaganda department (RNC/Bush Whitehouse) ahead of time.

He's a coward and he hires people that are thugs. He probably got a chuckle out of it when he saw it pre-publication and personally ok'ed it to run.

Why does he hate America so much?

But as more time passes, the more this story seems very "dog-bites-man" to me. Now if Murdoch were to become so "livid" that he would publicly denounce the cartoon--that would be news to me.

Hell, the other devotees to his treasonous sense of humour are probably flocking to get their subscriptions!

Circulation (everywhere but his head) will surge because of this.

Remember, it's a liberal media...

who bent over backwards yesterday to give the Post the benefit of the doubt and claim this overtly racist propaganda wasn't really racist?

Oh, right.

Where cowards usually hang out when they are afraid to state the obvious... now that it safe to call it what it is...

yesterday never happened. Time to look forward.

And I find it impossible to believe this cartoon was not meant to send a very implicit message to moderates and liberals:

Call OUR President a chimp? Take THAT...

Nothing--NOTHING--at the levels of these publications and media outlets is done 'accidentally' or mistakenly. Nothing. I doubt that Murdoch was consulted first and then decided to run the cartoon. But his base is the target, and the red meat has been tossed.

of the pavlovian racist accusations that have been thrown at this cartoon and anyone who can look at it and see it in the "a monkey could do this" context not as a racial slur. Calling me ignorant, or claiming only right wing nuts could have this type of response, shows that you yourself are a bigot. I apologize that my perception of this issue does not conform to yours but I am not a republican or a conservative. Please read my letters if you don't believe me. I am also not a troll. Yes, I am well aware of our racial history, and yes, I am well aware that monkey can be used as a racial slur. But I still think the reaction from certain people on the left to this has more to do with their own racism than any racism in that cartoon. It's a Rorschach test and you just failed. You don't understand the concept of a post racial society, you are still watching movies like "Remember the Titans" and feeling good about yourself, so go ahead and keep on keeping on with this but the younger generations are moving past you.