By Antoinette

Rupert Murdoch’s New York Post has apologized Thursday for an offensive cartoon that compared President Barack Obama to a chimpanzee gunned down by police, according to the Associated Press.

More than 200 angry protesters marched in front of the NY Post’s office to picket. The crowd shouted “Boycott the Post! Shut it down.” Protesters said the cartoon echoed racist stereotypes of blacks as monkeys.

The Rev. Al Sharpton, who led the protest, called the newspaper's "conditional statement" of regret.

"Though we think it is the right thing for them to apologize to those they offended, they seem to want to blame the offense on those (who) raised the issue, rather than take responsibility for what they did," said Sharpton in a statement.

The NY Post is owned by Murdoch’s News Corporation. The same company that produces Fox News and Fox Business Channel.

The Post said the cartoon was "a clear parody" about the death of Travis, the chimp that Connecticut police killed Monday after it mauled a friend of its owner.

Cartoonist Sean Delonas’ drawings shows a dead chimp and two police officers, one with a smoking gun. The caption reads, "They'll have to find someone else to write the next stimulus bill."

Murdoch’s New York Post lame apology of offensive cartoon

Wednesday's Page Six cartoon - caricaturing Monday's police shooting of a chimpanzee in Connecticut - has created considerable controversy.

It shows two police officers standing over the chimp's body: "They'll have to find someone else to write the next stimulus bill," one officer says.

It was meant to mock an ineptly written federal stimulus bill.

Period.

But it has been taken as something else - as a depiction of President Obama, as a thinly veiled expression of racism.

This most certainly was not its intent; to those who were offended by the image, we apologize.

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.