Racist Columnist Defends His Obama 'Satire'

Ugly, 1950's-style bigotry is alive and well at a Long Island newspaper -- and the perpetrator even has the chutzpah to claim he's being "bullied." Will it be tolerated?

Last week, The Independent, a small weekly that serves the island's East End, published a satirical column about Barack Obama by editor in chief and co-publisher Rick Murphy. It was titled "Why I should Be Our Next President, by Yo Mama bin Barack."

Here's a sample of the sort of "humor" it contains:

The truth is, I don't know many black people, but my advisors have drafted a strategy to reel in the black vote.

1)Call everyone "Brother." Blacks, I am told, do this, even if their real brothers are mostly in jail.

2)Talk Jive. Brothers want to hear jive. During my speech I told the crowd "We be, you know, sick of whitey supressin' and congestin' so, you know, we won't denigrate or sophisticate but emulate and populate, the system is, like, broken, y'all!"

After receiving complaints, the paper pulled the column and replaced it with a terse apology. To prevent it from being swept under the rug, Hamptons resident Alec Baldwin reposted the original column on his Huffington Post blog last night, along with some background about Murphy and Independent owner Jerry Della Femina.

Apology or no, Murphy's descent into vicious racial stereotypes is the sort of thing that would earn him instant termination at any reputable newspaper -- especially when you consider that, only a week earlier, he had enraged the local gay community by calling Hillary Clinton a "bull dyke on steroids" and a "steely-eyed lesbo." I called and emailed Della Femina to see if he plans to fire his editor in chief but haven't heard back.

Murphy, however, did get back to me, although hardly with abject contrition. Here's how he spun his attack.

It was, regrettably, a poor attempt at parody clearly marked in the entertainment section on our humor page. It is on me, as writer and editor and I've apologized. That said, whatever internal rebukes we make will be done within the company. I have been apologetic, but in edition [sic] to being a columnist I've been a good editor in chief and our newspaper has become quite good under my guidance.We're trying to weigh (and I am a part owner) the appropriate response but keeping in mind we have satirized Bush (duh!), Cheney, Giuliani, et all many times. There is a certain awareness that we are being bullied here, that a double standard exists. But personally, I am sorry I offended anyone. The bottom line is, I'm not a racist, and our company is diverse and multicultural -- our highest paid employees happens to be black. So, the question by a good journalist might raise is, is it better to enable minorities and make fun of them, or is it better to hold them down and give lip service? neither, is appropriate, of course, and we are mortified to have to deal with this. We were wrong, and we know it.