Rupert Murdoch's chimp-attack cartoon apology

This time the apology for the New York Post’s chimp-attack cartoon really means something, said Josh Grossberg in E! Online. The tabloid’s owner, media tycoon Rupert Murdoch, has said the Sean Delonas cartoon, which linked the shooting of a chimp that attacked its owner’s friend to the writers of the stimulus bill, was “a mistake.” Now we’ll see whether protesters who saw the drawing as a racist swipe at President Obama will be satisfied.

One thing's for sure, said Jeff Bercovici in Portfolio: Things aren’t looking good for New York Post editor, Col Allan. He’s the one ultimately responsible for running the cartoon. “Rupert Murdoch has a pretty solid record of standing behind his talent and laughing off controversies he considers silly, and the Post, as a tabloid, has not just a license but a mission to be outrageous.” But this time things appear different.

Let’s hope things calm down, said Clyde Haberman in The New York Times. Activist Al Sharpton has gone so far as to demand that the Federal Communications Commission re-examine waivers to its media ownership rules that let Murdoch own two newspapers (The Post and The Wall Street Journal) and two TV stations in the metropolitan area. But the government has no business “taking on a newspaper because of a dopey drawing.”

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Surely it wasn't Sharpton who got Murdoch rattled, said Chris Rovzar in New York magazine. "Maybe someone with actual power? In Washington, perhaps?" Regardless, this apology is broader than the paper's first one last week, and it's "a pretty big step."