Update: NY Post apologizes for cartoon, sort of

The New York Post has issued a statement apologizing for the controversial cartoon it published earlier this week.

CNN reports that The Post said the cartoon was meant to mock what it called an “ineptly written” stimulus bill.

“But it has been taken as something else — as a depiction of President Obama, as a thinly veiled expression of racism,” reads the statement. “This most certainly was not its intent; to those who were offended by the image, we apologize.”

But the statement goes on to say:

“However, there are 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. Sometimes a cartoon is just a cartoon — even as the opportunists seek to make it something else.”

Meanwhile Grammy-winning singer John Legend posted an open letter to the paper on his blog. If the insult wasn’t intended, “it was stupid and willfully ignorant of you not to connect these easily connectable dots,” he wrote. Click here to read Legend’s entire post.