Internal Dispute Kept SPJ From Criticizing Chimp Cartoon

By: Joe Strupp An internal dispute at the Society of Professional Journalists over a statement about last week's New York Post "chimp" cartoon kept the organization from formally condemning the drawing, according to SPJ leaders.

Linda Jue, co-chair of the SPJ diversity committee, said the committee had fashioned a lengthy statement criticizing the cartoon, which was published on Feb. 18 and depicted two policemen shooting a chimp. The image, a take-off of a widely-reported chimp attack in nearby Connecticut, included one of the officers stating: "They'll have to find someone else to write the next stimulus bill."

The image was roundly criticized by many officials and journalism observers as potentially racist, and eventually sparked an open apology from News Corp. Chair Rupert Murdoch this past Tuesday.

Jue said her committee completed the protest statement last Sunday, and submitted it to SPJ President David Aeikens for approval Sunday night. "News agencies have to be sensitive to how they portray racial and ethnic biases," said Jue. "There did not seem to be any vetting in the newspaper."

But when Aeikens received the statement, he held it for a day and asked the committee to shorten it. He said he was ready to release it on Tuesday, almost a week after the original cartoon, but chose not to release it at all after Murdoch's apology.

"They came to us on Sunday, that was already almost too late," Aeikens told E&P about the diversity committee. "I said we would entertain it. But it was already very long, three to four pages. I asked them to shorten it."

Jue said the committee worked to reduce the length, describing the eventual final version as "water-down."

By Tuesday, Aeikens said it was too late to really be effective: "It would have been piling on. I did not feel the statement would add anything to the discussion that late in the game."

Aeikens agreed the cartoon was worth criticizing, as was the Post's slow response, noting: "There is no question that the New York Post missed an opportunity to have a dialogue about this."

But he said the SPJ response could have come more quickly: "Sometimes you can?t get at things. They got at it for or five days after it happened. The NAACP and the NABJ had already been out on it."

Jue and the diversity committee, however, believed the statement should have been released so the group sent out the original version to SPJ members on Wednesday, and posted it on the SPJ diversity committee Web site.

It is also posted below:

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NY Post Failed in Its Ethical Obligations by Publishing Cartoon

Last week, the New York Post published a cartoon that was widely interpreted by many press observers as an attack on President Barack Obama, applying the racially-charged stereotype of a chimp to the author of the stimulus bill proposed to Congress by the country's first African American president.

We believe that the Post failed in its ethical obligation to its diverse constituency -- not simply by publishing the cartoon, which it had every legal right to do, but by failing to appreciate the racial overtones before publication and, more damningly, by its narrow-minded defensiveness after the heated reaction to its publication.

The cartoon portrays a recent attack of a Connecticut woman by a chimpanzee later shot and killed by police. In the cartoon, one of the officers says over the body of the dead chimpanzee, ?They?ll have to find someone else to write the next stimulus bill.?

The cartoon drew immediate condemnation from such groups as the NAACP and UNITY: Journalists of Color. The NAACP said the cartoon encourages violence against the president. That the reaction was so widespread and vociferous should have alerted the Post's editors to the fact that they had previously overlooked one obvious interpretation of its cartoon. Instead, the newspaper reacted by reiterating its initial interpretation of the cartoon to lampoon legislation, spurning an important ethical obligation to enter into a dialogue with its readers and the journalism professionals who were offended by its publication.

New York Post Chairman Rupert Murdoch has since personally apologized for the cartoon and to ?any reader who felt offended, and even insulted." He said the Post will work to be more sensitive.


The apology is late and much of the damage has already been done, but the incident presents an opportunity for the Post and all other journalism organizations to learn.


The Society of Professional Journalists' Code of Ethics calls on journalists to ?avoid stereotyping by race, gender, age, religion, ethnicity, geography, sexual orientation, disability, physical appearance or social status.? That respect for cultural sensitivity includes journalists' obligation to ?examine their own cultural values and avoid imposing those values on others.?

SPJ has traditionally encouraged the news media to diversify their hiring, so that their staffs are more reflective of the overall population they are serving. This controversy is a good example of how important that policy is to all news coverage. Through cultural ignorance, journalists can and often do -- as in this case -- fail to consider the racial and ethnic cues and stereotypes they are communicating through language and images.

The code also states that journalists "are accountable to their readers, listeners, viewers and each other" and should "clarify and explain news coverage and invite dialogue with the public over journalistic conduct."

After the cartoon was published, the New York Post's weak apology showed no understanding of why its cartoon might have been deeply offensive to others. The newspaper said it was not their "intent" to express racism, and they blamed the criticism on critics who had other reasons to attack the newspaper.

Those ethical injunctions include any form of incendiary commentary on news events. Even aside from the racial overtones missed by the Post's tone-deaf editors, it's hard to accept that shooting a politician for a political act is not incendiary and therefore subject to more pre-publication deliberation.

The Northern California Chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists strongly opposes such misuses of power by journalists and believes journalism organizations can learn from this when reporting and commenting on news in a culturally diverse society.