Friday, February 20, 2009

Going Ape Over a Cartoon



A woman was mauled by a chimp in Stamford, Conn., and a Police officer shot the chimp dead.

How do you use that image to comment on the controversial Stimulus Bill passed by Obama ?

Well, if you're Sean Delonas of The New York Post simply caption the shooting of the chimp in this way:
"They'll have to find someone else to write the next stimulus bill"

Then you sit back and let others field the outrage of Civil Rights activist Al Sharpton, who called the cartoon "troubling at best given the historic racist attacks of African-Americans as being synonymous with monkeys." Over a thousand readers of The Huffington Post voiced their disapproval, to which columnist Sam Stein responded:

"At its most benign, the cartoon suggests that the stimulus bill was so bad, monkeys may as well have written it. Others believe it compares the president to a rabid chimp. Either way, the incorporation of violence and (on a darker level) race into politics is bound to be controversial. Perhaps that's what Delonas wanted. "

So what's all the huffing about ? Would you call this an offensive cartoon, or do you believe artist Delonas was merely exercising his rights to Free Speech ? His website has apparently been shut down due to overload as of this posting.

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