Shut It Down!

It may seem strange for someone who has spent most of their life writing for the print media to call for shutting down a place that employs people who are ostensibly my peers, but enough is enough. This is a matter of human rights. The New York Post, perhaps the most important print media property of Rupert Murdoch's News Corp empire, has been spewing vile insults that pass for "journalism" for as long as he has owned it. The appearance of this latest incomprehensibly disgusting cartoon should surprise no one. The cartoonist is the same one who produced the sliming of mayoral candidate Fernando Ferrer, portraying him as a servant of Al Sharpton, which helped cost him the race in 2001. Delonas's "work" is well-known as a tasteless freak show, as is shown in this Gawker spread.

          But let's not call for the shutdown of the Post just because of this nauseating display. It's so easy to overlook the years of poisonous drivel that so often appears on its editorial pages, and is spewed out by its columnists and reporters. This is just not a case of cartoon sensationalism out of control. The New York Post, like the rest of the instruments of Murdoch's empire (I haven't even mentioned Fox News) is a sustained attack on human warmth, grace, and intelligence that has unfortunately caused more damage than can be undone in a few short years. It has created a corrupt, anti-human worldview that actually has traction with the everyday people that consume it and has been a major disrupter of the capacity to analyze and critique the disastrous presidency of the previous eight years. We are all paying for that now.

             Lastly, the mostly unsourced complaints from disgruntled Post employees, who have tacitly endorsed this reign of horror all along, ring a little hollow. Murdoch actually benefits from the illusion that there is internal self-critique in his malicious empire. That's part of the game he plays. The prudent thing for those with principle would be to resign. And for the rest of us to refuse to ever contribute one more cent to Murdoch's toxic "journalism" ever again.