When the New York Post published a cartoon that compared the author of the economic stimulus bill (by most accounts thought to be President Obama) with a rabid ape that has been shot by police, many people protested and spoke out about the controversial cartoon, including Post editor Sandra Guzman.

Now it appears that Guzman, who worked on the monthly in-paper insert Tempo, might have been let go from her position in a move that employees told the Huffington Post appeared to be retributive.

“I neither commissioned or approved it,” Guzman wrote to a list of journalist colleagues shortly after the cartoon was published. “I saw it in the paper yesterday with the rest of the world. And, I have raised my objections to management.”

Suzi Halpin, a spokesman from The Post dismissed any allegations that Guzman’s cartoon criticism played a role in her dismissal.

“The statement from the paper explains the reason why Sandra is no longer there,” she told the Huffington Post.

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The Associated Press is reporting that New York Post parent company News Corp. is forming an external diversity council in response to pressure over a widely-circulated and much-maligned cartoon by staffer Sean Delonas that critics said compared President Barack Obama to a dead chimpanzee.

The cartoon first appeared on February 18, and critics became so vocal that News Corp. chairman Rupert Murdoch published an apology in the Post. At the time, civil rights and community organizations demanded further action.

NAACP President and CEO Benjamin Todd Jealous said Wednesday that News Corp. had agreed to form a “diversity community council” that will meet semiannually with company executives. The council will include members of the NAACP, 100 Black Men of America, the National Action Network and the National Urban League. However, News Corp. spokesman Jack Horner said Al Sharpton, a longtime adversary of the New York Post, will not be on the panel.

Rupert Murdoch

Rupert Murdoch, the chairman of the New York Post’s parent company News Corp, has issued an apology to readers for the controversial cartoon it published last Wednesday that many saw as a racist attack on Barack Obama.

“We ran a cartoon that offended many people. Today I want to personally apologize to any reader who felt offended, and even insulted,” Murdoch said.

Murdoch’s tone is much different than The Post’s first attempt at an apology that came February 19. The Post’s initial apology included the caveat that “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.”

The cartoon, drawn by Post staffer Sean Delonas which ran in the February 18, showed a dead chimpanzee shot by police officers who said to one another, “They’ll have to find someone else to write the next stimulus bill.” The cartoon has been criticized by protesters and readers as depicting President Barack Obama as a chimp.

“The only intent of that cartoon was to mock a badly written piece of legislation. It was not meant to be racist, but unfortunately, it was interpreted by many as such,” Murdoch said.

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