The NY Post's Apology Was as Tasteless as Their Cartoon

By: Deborah Mathis

It was more than 20 years ago. I had just begun writing a regular opinion column, and I had unnecessarily offended a public official. An apology was in order, and I didn’t hesitate to offer it.

After admitting my mistake in the opening lines, I proceeded to explain how I had come to make it.

“Next time, don’t do it that way,” counseled Bob McCord, my editor and a veteran newsman with decades of editorial writing under his belt. “People don’t want to hear your excuses. Just say, ‘I’m sorry; I was wrong,” and let it go at that.”

The editors of The New York Post could have used McCord’s good counsel last week, when they penned what began as an apology but ended as a scolding about its preposterous cartoon in which two police officers gun down a chimpanzee and one says, “They’ll have to find someone else to write the next stimulus bill.”

“It was meant to mock an ineptly written federal stimulus bill. Period,” read The Post editors’ post-mortem. “(T)o those who were offended by the image, we apologize.”

The NY Post's Apology Was as Tasteless as Their Cartoon....