First Pooch is Picked

In one of the most anticipated decisions to come out of the White House since the Obamas moved in, the family has finally decided what it will adopt as the “First Pooch.” In an interview with People magazine, First Lady Michelle Obama revealed that the family is looking for a rescue Portuguese Water Dog. The dog is due to arrive in the White House in April after daughters Sasha and Malia get back from their spring break trip, the publication reports. “Temperamentally they’re supposed to be pretty good. From the size perspective, they’re sort of middle of the road – it’s not small, but it’s not a huge dog,” Mrs. Obama said of the breed. “And the folks that we know who own them have raved about them. So that’s where we’re leaning.” More here.
 
 

NAACP Protests Post and FOX News
NAACP Branches across the nation participated in a “Day of Action” Thursday to protest the “racially insensitive” coverage at local FOX News affiliates and The New York Post and to demand greater diversity at those outlets and nationwide. “We believe that these stations, which are often good corporate citizens in our community, should lend their voice to ours and call for the parent corporation they are affiliated with to change its pattern of racially insensitive and incendiary coverage,” said NAACP President and CEO Benjamin Todd Jealous. Both Fox News and the New York Post have come under criticism by a variety of media watchdog groups for racially insensitive and biased reporting. The National Association of Black Journalists (NABJ) gave Fox News their ‘Thumbs Down’ Award last year for its racially insensitive commentary and reporting along with a lack of diverse political correspondents during the election. Fox News was widely condemned for calling Michelle Obama “Obama’s baby mama” and referring to then-candidate Barack Obama’s fist bump with his wife a “terrorist fist jab.” In addition, for the past eight years, The New York Post is the only major newspaper that has refused to participate in the American Society of Newspaper Editors annual survey that tracks diversity at daily newspapers in the United States.  NAACP leaders again today demanded firing of the cartoon’s creator, Sean Delonas, and Editor in Chief Col Allen. “It outraged our members,” said Roger Vann, NAACP Vice President of Membership and Field Operations. “It compared African Americans to primates and it sullied police officers at a time when many communities are torn by suspicious police killings of young African American men.”
 

Mistrial in Case of Mississippi Mayor
On Tuesday, a U.S. court declared a mistrial in the case of the Jackson, Miss. mayor accused of leading a group of people to tear down a suspected crack house. The jury was unable to reach a verdict. In August of 2006, Jackson Mayor Frank Melton instructed a group of young people with hammers and sticks to destroy the home where he believed crack was being sold. Melton doesn’t deny that he damaged the duplex, and has argued that he was just keeping true to the promise he made to aggressively fight crime in 2005, when he won more than 80 percent of the vote. During his time in office, Melton distinguished himself by using a mobile police unit to conduct sweeps in poor neighborhoods, reports the news service. However, prosecutors accuse him of being drunk at the time of the crack house raid and have charged him with violating civil rights. After deliberating for five days, the jury couldn’t come to a decision and there will most likely be a new trial, reports Reuters. “We live to fight another day,” John Reeves, his attorney, said following the verdict. Melton was acquitted of state charges in 2007. A conviction in these proceedings would have cost Melton his job and he would be facing up to 25 years in jail.

 The Rev. Al Sharpton, the first Black leader to pounce on The New York Post for its controversial cartoon likening President Obama to an ape, says that the newspaper’s owner didn’t go far enough with his apology. The “apology leaves a lot more questions than it gives answers,” Sharpton said. “The question is what will guarantee that these kinds of things will not happen again. Let us make no mistake about it: We have seen two apologies in one week – really one and a half apologies – which is unprecedented, but clearly not far enough.” Read more here.

 If Rupert Murdoch was serious in his recent apology over his newspaper’s controversial cartoon linking President Obama to an ape, he “could resolve this unfortunate situation in 15 minutes,” the NAACP said in a statement Tuesday. The first step, the civil rights organization said, would be to develop substantive measures to ensure that this type of incendiary incident does not happen again. “Mr. Murdoch’s apology comes only after almost a week of tens of thousands of expressions of outrage and disgust from people across the country,” the statement says. “The offenders are still on staff and there are no measures being taken to increase diversity in its newsroom. The apology from Mr. Murdoch is sadly too little, too late and we call on Mr. Murdoch to take the steps needed to assure that the New York Post can practice more responsible journalism and truly be sensitive to its community, in the future.”

The NAACP cited the history of “insensitive reporting” in Murdoch’s New York Post and Fox News channel, noting that cartoonist Sean Delonas, with the support of the editor in chief, “has published numerous vile cartoons tinged with racism.” The group pointed out that during the elections Fox News called Michelle Obama “Obama’s baby mama” and called the “affectionate and common fist bump” between Barack Obama and his wife, a “‘terrorist fist jab’ at a time when death threats against the candidate were at an all time high for any presidential candidate.” The NAACP also pressed Murdoch to begin reporting its diversity numbers to the American Society of Newspaper Editors. Unlike other media organizations, “one has to wonder how many Hispanic or African-American reporters and editors are working at the New York Post?  Clearly, with more diversity in its newsrooms, it’s likely the paper would have been able to understand the deeply offensive nature of the cartoon. Our guess is that the numbers are abysmally low for a newspaper serving a city with a population as diverse as New York,” the NAACP says.

Describing The New York Post’s monkey cartoon as an “invitation to assassination,” the NAACP Saturday called the newspaper’s apology weak and promised a boycott unless Editor in Chief Col Allan and cartoonist Sean Delonas are fired. Following a swarm of protest, including barbs from such notable figures as singer John Legend and filmmaker Spike Lee, the Post wrote in an editorial on its Web site that the cartoon was slamming the economic stimulus bill passed by Congress, … but “to those who were offended by the image, we apologize.” That was actually “a half of an apology, without elaboration,” countered NAACP President Benjamin Jealous. The drawing “picks off the scabs of all the racial wounds,” he added. The cartoon depicted two White police officers, one with a smoking gun in his hand; a chimpanzee lay on the ground in a pool of blood with two bullet holes in its stomach. One officer says to the other, “They’ll have to find someone else to write the next stimulus bill.” The cartoon is an example of “thoughtlessness taken to the extreme, NAACP Chairman Julian Bond. Anyone who is not offended by it does not have any sensitivity.” In an open letter to the Post’s editor, Legend wrote, “I’ve read your lame statement in response to the outrage you provoked. Shame on you …offensive.

Apology Not Accepted
The New York Post decided to offer an apology to those who may have been offended by its cartoon depicting the president as a monkey.  But the paper didn’t go far enough to say its sorry for the editorial decision to publish the cartoon in the first place.

Even though it stood by its provocative cartoon the day after it was published, the New York post has decided to apologize for the sketching it published that links a bullet-riddled Chimpanzee to President Obama. Yesterday, New York’s first African-American Governor, David A. Paterson, responded to the apology, saying “It might be a time to open up a dialogue on just where that line is, where good clean fun and degradation are.” The Rev. Al Sharpton led protests in front of the newspaper offices and many Black leaders have called for a boycott of the tabloid. Patterson, on the other hand, says The Post’s apology is “very honorable.” “At this time when tensions are running high, with the economy down and also even the media outlets having to lay off people, it is an act of sensitivity.”

 Should we still boycott The New York Post?

It looks like the controversy over The New York Post’s political cartoon has taken another turn:  Folks are now calling for a boycott of the paper’s advertiser.  All of this stems from the cartoon Tuesday depicting two officers, one with a smoking gun pointed at dead chimp, and saying, “Next time they’ll have to get someone else to write the stimulus package.” Read more at Pamela on Politics.

 In case you were wondering, there will not be an apology from The New York Post for its controversial cartoon in Wednesday’s paper. The Rev. Al Sharpton and other angry readers say the ad is virulently racist. The editor-in-chief of the paper called the cartoon “a clear parody of the current news event” and placed the blame for the outrage on Sharpton. But even if there were no racial overtones, as the Post editor claims, it sure looks like the cartoonist is advocating the assassination of a U.S. president.  What do you think? Do you agree with boycott of The New York Post? Read the rest on Pamela on Politics.