Opponents of Mayor Bloomberg (myself included) are looking at all ways to attack him as he attempts to run for his third term. There are so many avenues for that endeavor, fiscally, term limits debacle, etc. Now we can add racism to the mix. Not that the Mayor himself is, I'm not accusing him of that, but as the leader of our city, he must stand up for the citizenry and speak out against racist elements of our society, specifically the NY Post (more specifically the people there that drew and ran the cartoon) even if the Post runs good stories about himself.
So far the reactions to Bloomberg's reaction have been harsh:
They also backed him in the term limits saga and that is just one more negative about the Murdoch rag. What we need is a new Mayor, one that will have the courage to go up against those that condone racist symbols in our society. Also, it is important that he or she be able to be able to see why people would be outraged by Delonas' cartoon.At this morning’s City Hall rally, Councilwoman Letitia James called on black clergy members to block Michael Bloomberg from speaking to their congregations because of his lack of outrage over the controversial cartoon in the New York Post.
Bloomberg told reporters at a press conference ealier today that he accepted Murdoch’s apology at face value. Earlier, Bloomberg acknowledged that some people could be offended by the cartoon, but he didn’t seem perturbed by it.
Bloomberg may have been trying to avoid a clash with Murdoch, with whom he has had a good relationship.
Murdoch is among the contributors to Bloomberg’s effort to improve city schools, and the New York Post offered friendly encouragement for Bloomberg's presidential campaign. The September 15, 2006, editorial was headlined "Run Mike Run."
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