(Click on image to ENLARGE) The following is an apology released by the NY Post:

Wednesday’s Page Six cartoon – caricaturing Monday’s police shooting of a chimpanzee in Connecticut – has created considerable controversy.

It shows two police officers standing over the chimp’s body: “They’ll have to find someone else to write the next stimulus bill,” one officer says.

It was meant to mock an ineptly written federal stimulus bill.

Period.

But it has been taken as something else – as a depiction of President Obama, as a thinly veiled expression of racism.

This most certainly was not its intent; to those who were offended by the image, we apologize.

However, there are some in the media and in public life who have had differences with The Post in the past – and they see the incident as an opportunity for payback.

To them, no apology is due.

Sometimes a cartoon is just a cartoon – even as the opportunists seek to make it something else.
Sharpton, who planned another rally for Friday, released a statement, saying he’s not satisfied with simply an apology.

“The New York Post statement will be discussed by all of the leadership of the various groups that have mobilized and we will respond to it at the rally at 5 p.m. tomorrow outside of the New York Post.

“At this point there will be no cancellation of the rally and though we think it is the right thing for them to apologize to those they offended, they seem to want to want to blame the offense on those of whom raised the issue, rather than take responsibility for what they did.

“However, rather than engage as they are in name calling back and forth, we will make a collective decision on how to proceed. All of us can only wish the New York Post had taken a more mature position when the issue was first raised rather than belatedly come with a conditional statement after people began mobilizing and preparing to challenge the waiver of News Corp in the City where they own several television stations and newspapers.”

“Clergymen will hit the pulpits this Sunday,” Sharpton said.

Sharpton said the cartoon is racist. He has an ambitious plan of attack: boycotting newsstands, telling people not to buy The Post and asking advertisers not to advertise.

But his biggest threat is going to the Federal Communication Commission.

“Let us remember that Mr. [Rupert] Murdoch got a waiver from the FCC so he could own two radio, two television stations and a newspaper in this town. We will ask the FCC to review that waiver,” Sharpton said.

Prior to the newspaper’s apology on Thursday night, Post Editor-in-Chief Col Allan issued the same statement two days in a row.

“The cartoon is a clear parody of a current news event, to wit the shooting of a violent chimpanzee in Connecticut. It broadly mocks Washington’s efforts to revive the economy,” Allen had said.

New York Gov. David Paterson had plenty to say Wednesday on the subject.

“They do feed a kind off a negative and stereotypical way that people think, but I think if it’s enough that people are raising this issue, I hope they would clarify it,” he said. “In a situation like this where an economic downturn has shown in the past that it does lead to a lot of unnecessary and stereotypical characterizations, an explanation is in order.”

“I’m trying to be fair to the New York Post, who has never been very fair to me,” he added.