"Good Morning America" reporter David Wright on Thursday worried that a comic strip appearing in yesterday's New York Post could harm the "post racial glow" that America has been enjoying since Barack Obama's inauguration. Wright recounted the outrage expressed by the Reverend Al Sharpton and others over an editorial cartoon depicting a chimp shot by police and connecting it to the just passed economic stimulus bill. (Host Diane Sawyer, above, introduced the segment.)
Wright derided, "Ever since the inauguration, America has seemed to bask in a post-racial glow. But not so fast. Yesterday, the New York Post published a cartoon likening President Obama to a violent monkey shot by police." The GMA journalist chose to accept the most sinister view of the comic, that the dead ape was intended to represent the President. (Of course, since the comic refers to the chimpanzee as the writer of the stimulus bill and Obama didn't author the legislation, that argument doesn't seem to make the most sense.)
Wright featured no one who offered a different interpretation of the cartoon. He simply stated, "The paper refused to apologize for the cartoon, calling it a clear parody of a current news event." Instead, Wright used the controversy as an opportunity to uncritically repeat Attorney General Eric Holder's comments on Wednesday that America is a "nation of cowards." Wright lectured, "Despite evident progress on race, America still has a long way to go, according to the nation's first black attorney general who spoke yesterday at a separate black history month event."
The ABC correspondent also intoned, "It turns out the 2008 election didn't settle the race issue." He then featured a clip of Kevin Alexander Gray, a writer for the very left-wing Progressive. According to Gray, Obama may be the Tiger Woods of politics, "But he's not necessarily going to change the game."
How liberal is Gray? In the October 2008 issue, he contemplated voting for Green Party candidate Cynthia McKinney over Barack Obama. Except for an onscreen graphic reading "writer, The Progressive," there was no hint of Gray's radical left views.
A transcript of the February 19 segment, which aired at 7:18am, follows:
DIANE SAWYER: Anyway, we turn now to the question of race and motive in America. This new political cartoon, sparking controversy this morning. Some people saying that it was a racist attack against the President. Others, just a miscalculation. What do you think? Here's ABC's David Wright.
ABC GRAPHIC: No Laughing Matter: Race in the Obama Era
DAVID WRIGHT: Black history month at the White House is not just a Hallmark holiday this year.
MICHELLE OBAMA [at the White House]: You're yawning. Wake up. I'm just kidding.
WRIGHT: For the first time, the first family is African-American. Ever since the inauguration, America has seemed to bask in a post-racial glow. But not so fast. Yesterday, the New York Post published a cartoon likening President Obama to a violent monkey shot by police.
REVEREND AL SHARPTON: This is a very serious affront. This is race-based. This is offensive.
WRIGHT: The paper refused to apologize for the cartoon, calling it a clear parody of a current news event. Despite evident progress on race, America still has a long way to go, according to the nation's first black attorney general who spoke yesterday at a separate black history month event.
ERIC HOLDER (U.S. attorney general): Though this nation has proudly thought of itself as a ethnic melting pot, in things racial, we have always been, and we, I believe continue to be, in too many ways, essentially, a nation of cowards.
WRIGHT: Conversation about race is edgier these days. This year, for the first time since Al Jolson, Hollywood felt it was safe to nominee a white actor in black face for an Oscar.
[Brief "Tropic Thunder" clip]
WRIGHT: It turns out the 2008 election didn't settle the race issue.
KEVIN ALEXANDER GRAY (Writer, The Progressive): I always tell people that Obama is like the Tiger Woods of politics. He wants to wear the green jacket. But he's not necessarily going to change the game.
WRIGHT: Society's deepest divisions don't disappear overnight just because we've made a little progress. For "Good Morning America," David Wright, ABC News, Washington.
ROBERTS: Part of the reason we shied away from the conversation, people are afraid from being labeled a racist or playing the race card. But it's something we all have to move beyond.
SAWYER: Right. And just talk.
ROBERTS: Yes.
—Scott Whitlock is a news analyst for the Media Research Center.




















Editor at Large
Comments Policy
As I stated on the original
February 19, 2009 - 11:56 ET by QueenMumAs I stated on the original "chimp" thread, when is Obama going to address this? Isn't he supposed to be the Great Uniter? I guess he needs a bit more time for his advisers to help him develop the spin.
Civilization is the progress toward a society of privacy. The savage's whole existence is public, ruled by the laws of the tribe. Civilization is the process of setting man free from men. - Ayn Rand
Yup the two things that
February 19, 2009 - 11:59 ET by taterYup the two things that trump whatever the press tries to lie to us is
1) Obama didn't write the bill.
2) Bush actually was compared to a monkey in cartoons and not a peep from the MSM.
www.theholyrosary.org
"There is no problem, I tell you, no matter how difficult it is, that we can not resolve by the prayer of the Holy Rosary." -Sister Lucia
Sister Lucia?
February 19, 2009 - 13:38 ET by midiaWait... isn't Sister Lucia dead? That's a big problem the rosary couldn't resolve. Now, if you're talking about prayer to Christ the Savior, I would agree about the problem thing.
His Kingdom come, His Will be done, is what scripture says.
I saw this cartoon and
February 19, 2009 - 12:00 ET by Scuba DudeI saw this cartoon and thought it caught how CONGRESS looked, not Barky.
The so called "Stimulus" bill might have well been written by rabid monkey's.
I saw it too...
February 19, 2009 - 12:13 ET by CobraManMy first thought was the monkey randomly tapping away on a keyboard for an infinite amount of time... but now that monkey's time is up.
The Citizens of each State shall be entitled to all Privileges and Immunities
of Citizens in the several States.
The US Constitution
Unless you're a fetus.
The US Supreme Court
Al Sharpton outraged?
February 19, 2009 - 12:03 ET by urbuggenmeAl Sharpton outraged at a dead monkey cartoon? So does that mean Al Sharpton is saying that "The One" Obama, does in fact look like a monkey? Or that all black people are related to monkeys? Or that someone needs to shoot whoever worte the "pork-u-less" bill. I just don't understand
Why is anyone even reporting anything Al Sharpton says? ....
"The paper refused to apologize for the cartoon..." Its a frecking cartoon people! get over it!
David Wright
February 19, 2009 - 12:07 ET by FormerMarineOfficerIn the immortal words of Sgt. Hulka:
Lighten up Francis.
If Holder wants to show some moral "courage" vis-a-vis a "post" racial America, let him man up and call for the abolishment of racial preferences, period. Level the playing field. Let us right the wrongs of today and the recent past and let's move on.
Post Racial Glow?
February 19, 2009 - 12:09 ET by JPR1Eric Holder threw a wet blanket on that didn't he?
We're back to square-one with this issue, Jackson, Sharpton et al can rest easy.
Holder's right
February 19, 2009 - 13:11 ET by Ten7sHolder's right. All of the hand wringing over race does make them look like a bunch of cowards and stupid cowards to boot. We're totally missing the point, namely a Waste Bill that will hamstring our country during what appears to be the most challenging decade we've faced in four generations.
"Waste Bill"
February 19, 2009 - 15:00 ET by JPR1Good one Ten7s.
Not as catchy as all the other monikers applied, but it sure nails it for what it really is.
Cowards they are. Deathly afraid to confront their shortcoming in reasoning ability.
I wish they’d just cease and desist with all the “race” nonsense. Ninety-eight percent of the issues these people squawk about are simply cultural differences. The most problematic are related to differences in the principals, or lack thereof, people live by. I don’t give a rip about the clothes you wear, the food you eat or the music you listen to. If the principles you live by are counterproductive to social peace and prosperity, expect me to skip the dialogue and just complain.
I’m starting to think a good dose of economic strife is just what this country needs. Maybe reset the level of belief in some core principals.
I think that you Sir, Mr
February 19, 2009 - 12:13 ET by jistincaseI think that you Sir, Mr Holder should bear the badge of a coward for not admitting that this whole election cycle was puposely made racially charged. Anyone now that would dare speak up against Obomber and his monkey see monkey do crew is seen as a racist. Obummer is nothing more than a black man with a chip on his shoulder about how whitey has been keeping them all down for so long. All this is just about paybacks now. I would like to slap Sharpton's big fat mouth shut.
In that same speech, Holder
February 19, 2009 - 12:16 ET by motherbeltIn that same speech, Holder said......wait for it.....get your duct tape on....OK...
We don't talk enough about race!!
Good ever-loving grief!! Where does this man live???? I think most of the country is SICK of talking about race!!
However, that's not the money quote; this is:
we must feel comfortable enough with one
another and tolerant enough of each other to have frank conversations
about the racial matters that continue to divide us." (emphasis added)
Um Mr. Holder, you might want to address that comment to your friends in the black community. For too many of them "frank conversation" means blacks air a list of grievances against whites, and the whites whimper "Yes, you're rithgt; I'm sorry; what can we do to make you feel better?"
No negative comment about black behavior is tolerated; it is met with cries of Racism! and Hate Speech!
A two-way conversation means that blacks might have to hear a thing or two that they don't like.
Heaven forbid!
I didn't think it was physically possible, but this both sucks and blows. -Bart Simpson
Let's call for his resignation
February 19, 2009 - 12:27 ET by BlondeI'm offended.
Maybe we should demand he apologize.
Riight, mb....pass that bloody duct tape, would you please?
MB, who said the
February 19, 2009 - 12:45 ET by ThisnThatMB, who said the following:
"They're standing on the corner and they can't speak English.
I can't even talk the way these people talk:
Why you ain't,
Where you is,
What he drive,
Where he stay,
Where he work,
Who you be...
And I blamed the kid until I heard the mother talk.
And then I heard the father talk.
Everybody knows it's important to speak English
except these knuckleheads. You can't be a doctor
with that kind of crap coming out of your mouth.
In fact you will never get any kind of job making a
decent living."
That's right -- Bill Cosby. And what did he get for his troubles? Attacked, that's what. Knuckleheads is not the term I would use for these racists.
___________________________________
The challenge is to follow a consistent plan despite inconsistent prices - Sarah Palin, State of the State of Alaska speech
Mission Accomplished.
February 19, 2009 - 12:20 ET by CobraMan"Right. And just talk."
Hay, Diane, you're TALKING about issues like racism BECAUSE of the cartoon, aren't you? I would say that this political cartoon is doing more to get people talking about race issues than when the new AG claimed that America is afraid to talk about race issues. So, in this respect, Mission Accomplished!
The Citizens of each State shall be entitled to all Privileges and Immunities
of Citizens in the several States.
The US Constitution
Unless you're a fetus.
The US Supreme Court
I don't know about you..
February 19, 2009 - 12:30 ET by MrDebaterbut I don't care what color someone is...if you work, are responsible, take care of your kids, and leave me alone, nuff said...I am thinking that it's the Sharpton's that are the racists...they see everything as race related...For God's Sake...it was all over the news that a cop had to shoot a chimp...comparing the chimp to the aggregate intelligence of the congress was quite funny and I never thought about Obama once...after all...he had nothing to do with this bill...he is just a figurehead for the lefties running things behind the scene...it's a shame liberals are such simple-minded racists that the minute they see a chimp, they think of race...how disappointing for people who claim to be the "enlightened" ones.
Clearly the left did not read or understand this cartoon
February 19, 2009 - 12:32 ET by Lord ErondBut they did what liberals are best at doing, playing the race card. The only thing that the cartoon implies is that the stimulus bill (which Obama DIDN'T write) was so poorly written and conceived that it appeared to be done by crazed chimpanzees.
OMG, someone call the thought police.
"What you can not enforce, do not command" -Sophocles-
what about their cartoonists?
February 19, 2009 - 12:35 ET by jazzact13Does anyone remember the way liberal editorial cartoonists caricatured those in the Bush II administration who were black? Rice and Powell received no small share of nastiness from them. Didn't some lib cartoonist once do Condi as a parrot?
And what about Justice Thomas? And are their others?
Perhaps someone with the resources could find or make a collection of how those liberal cartoonists really portrayed conservative black people in public office, to show how hypocritical they're being now.
"Thoroughly worldly people never understand even the world; they rely altogether on a few cynical maxims which are not true."
Chesterton, Orthodoxy
here's nb about the Rice as parrot cartoon
February 19, 2009 - 12:42 ET by jazzact13http://newsbusters.org/blogs/mark-finkelstein/2008/07/16/john-harwood-has-never-seen-cartoon
And that has to be many time worse than the chimp cartoon.
"Thoroughly worldly people never understand even the world; they rely altogether on a few cynical maxims which are not true."
Chesterton, Orthodoxy
Duh
February 19, 2009 - 12:40 ET by moderncommentaries83Duh. It didn't "settle the race issue" because liberals find racism in everything!
This cartoon was not about Obama, it was alluding to the recent chimp mauling/shooting and the fact that a chimp with a computer could have eventually written a better economic stimulus bill than Congress did.
I read no racism in it whatsoever, although I did think it was a little distasteful to run a cartoon while the victim of the chimp attack is still in the hospital, in critical condition, with disfiguring, life-changing injuries.
Aut viam inveniam aut faciam
I hope that they do not
February 19, 2009 - 12:43 ET by IgnatzJFahrquarI hope that they do not concede to the strong arm tactics of Sharpton and the rest of that racist mob. So what, go ahead and boycott.
Oh, and Diane, go and have another drink.
"All generalizations are false, including this one.” Mark Twain
I give Up
February 19, 2009 - 13:17 ET by JimboThe country has elected a black President and has a black AG. Yet the libs relentlessly search for racism under every stone.
As I posted in another thread comparing this issue to the movie depicting President Bush's assasination:
"A fictional movie depicting the assassination of President Bush is hailed by the libs to be art, just fiction, harmless entertainment, free speech and the list goes on and on.
A political cartoon of police shooting a monkey given the complete idiocy of the spending bill brings Al Sharpton to the Post’s HQ.
I feel like a man without a country."
That picture
February 19, 2009 - 13:19 ET by Karinof Diane is tooooo funny. What a hand-wringer.
She always looks
February 19, 2009 - 18:14 ET by Arminiusas if she's been sucking on lemons.
Same type of outrage we saw in the "black hole" video
February 19, 2009 - 13:29 ET by krendlerJust a bunch of idiots who whose only reason for living is to be slighted, aggrieved and outraged.
Here's a perfect example:
http://www.youtube.c...
Another one was the delegate who got fired by the Obama campaign for refering to black children climbing in her tree as "monkeys".
Bill, Hillary and Ferraro thrown under the bus as "racists" during the dem primary for various, unspeakable offenses.
The list is endless.
And I wonder what this big "Dialog on Race" that the incoherent, moronic liberals keep asking for would sound like.
Yeah, "post racial glow". Sure.
Obama warns everyone during the campaign that the big, bad racist Republicans were going to remind us that he's black. Only it never happened (and no apology from Obama). And the only ones who have talked non-stop about the color of Obama's skin since the election have been blacks and the media. Rather than treating him as our president, they constantly refer to him as our African American President.
Now that Video link was
February 19, 2009 - 14:30 ET by dark_dsNow that Video link was funny .. was that from SNL? Oh it was real that makes it even funnier.
"America is on the Short Bus to Socialism"
Wait a second!
February 19, 2009 - 13:33 ET by JimboHey wait a second!
Isnt the term "post-racial glow"... well .... a racist statement?
What?
I'm out of context?
Wasn't the dead chimp on the comic out of context too?
What?
Oh... not really becasue it advanced the liberal agenda?
I see.
Post-Racial Nonsense
February 19, 2009 - 13:44 ET by slickwillie2001I say we will be past racism, or 'post racial' not when we simply elect a black President, but when we can treat that black President like we have treated any other. When the liberal media can be just as critical of him as they have any President, when cartoonists can make fun of him just as they have any President, and when we can judge his achievements and failures as objectively as we have any President, then we will be past racism. Today we appear to still be in the affirmative action phase of Presidential politics.
Re the chimp, it is TRUE that monkeys and other non-human primates have been used for centuries to denigrate blacks, as many have pointed out. However it does not therefore follow that ANY use of primates is racist. Monkeys etc have been used for just as long to make points on the definition of infinity, in the evolution argument, and myriad other analogies. Those instances are not racist. We need to use some common sense here, which is in ever more short supply in our nation.
Lipstick on a pig. One of
February 19, 2009 - 18:26 ET by RR GOPLipstick on a pig.
One of the 24% who thinks George W. Bush was a great President. One of the 89% who wants to bring back the stock and pillory.
Delonas Today
February 19, 2009 - 18:45 ET by slickwillie2001Delonas's cartoon for today is insensitive to amputees; it shows the American taxpayer having lost an arm and a leg. Outrageous!
http://www.nypost.co...
Give the left
February 19, 2009 - 19:09 ET by bigtimerGive the left time...they'll try to make something of this.
Oops, they couldn't insert race into, but where is the sensitivity?
Oh wait, this is where the left turn and look at him, and say... "Stand up on your good leg!"
cartoon
February 19, 2009 - 19:10 ET by jessieHJessie R. Hamby I now have a new desktop pic.!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!1
New York Post Cartoon, Racism
February 21, 2009 - 03:49 ET by Mencken-LiteNot only did Obama not write the stimulus bill (also known as the Lobbyist Enrichment Act) but he also did not read it. Is it possible that Black people are paranoid? Whenever someone exhibits dislike for a Black person or what he says or does is that racism? No it is paranoia. Seeing racism everywhere is mental illness. First Obama calls us typical white persons, now we are cowards and racists.
Mencken-Lite
enoughroomvideo.blogspot.com