A Long Island newspaper was forced to apologize Sunday for a political cartoon on the assassination of Charlie Kirk after it ignited a firestorm for the “vile” and “insensitive” piece.
Newsday admitted it should have never printed the cartoon, which appeared in its Saturday paper and depicted an empty chair with a blood stain sitting at a tent labeled “Charlie Kirk” and “Prove me Wrong.”
An arrow points to the seat with the text “Turning Point USA,” which is the name of the conservative nonprofit co-founded by Kirk.
The controversial drawing, penned by Pulitzer finalist illustrator Chip Bok, quickly ignited outrage on the island.
“Newsday—the only daily paper for Long Island—has crossed a line. By publishing a vile cartoon about the political assassination of Charlie Kirk, the paper has mocked tragedy, stoked division, and poured gasoline on the flames of political violence,” Suffolk County Republican Party Chairman Jesse Garcia said in a statement.
“This isn’t journalism. It’s a reckless, partisan attack that blames the victim, silences free speech, and shames everything this country should stand for,” Garcia said.
The chairman immediately called for the paper to remove the cartoon from all its platforms, terminate Bok’s contract, and apologize to Kirk’s family and Newsday’s readership.
“Until these actions are taken, we call on advertisers and subscribers to boycott Newsday. Do not support a publication that normalizes hate and endangers lives,” the politician raged.
Nassau County Executive Bruce Blakeman also rushed to “cancel” Long Island’s daily paper over the “over the top despicable” cartoon.
“The unconscionable cartoon in Newsday trivializing the assassination of Charlie Kirk is so over the top despicable that it is shocking even for the majority of us who realized long ago that Newsday abandoned any pretension of fairness,” the Republican wrote in a Facebook post Saturday.
“Cancel Newsday!” he wrote.
Kirk, 31, had just answered a question from an audience member about mass shootings committed by transgender people during a Sept. 10 event at Utah Valley University when he was hit by a single round.
The conservative influencer appeared to recoil in pain and grab at his neck as the crack of a single gunshot rang out from the crowd, sending thousands of spectators into a panic, dramatic video from the scene showed.
The alleged gunman was identified Friday as Tyler Robinson, a 22-year-old Utah student who allegedly wrote “Hey fascist! Catch!” on a bullet.
Newsday issued an apology on Sunday after the torrent of criticism over the cartoon, removing the image across its digital platform.
“On Saturday, Newsday published a syndicated editorial cartoon referring to the assassination of Charlie Kirk that was insensitive and offensive,” the outlet wrote in an apology on Sunday.
“We deeply regret this mistake and sincerely apologize to the family of Charlie Kirk and to all. We made an error in judgment. The cartoon has been removed from our digital platforms,” Newsday said.
The outlet claimed Bok used the name of Kirk’s organization, Turning Point USA, and the theme of his Utah event, “Prove Me Wrong,” to “suggest that Kirk’s assassination might be a turning point for healing our nation’s divide.”
“The imagery was inappropriate and should never have been published in Newsday,” the paper said.
A few hours before the long-form apology, Newsday simply posted “Newsday apologizes for cartoon about Charlie Kirk assassination.”
Some lawmakers accepted the publication’s apology — while other’s weren’t so quick to drop their grudge.
“Today, a little more than 19 hours after the statement from our Suffolk GOP condemning this disgraceful political cartoon, Newsday has publicly acknowledged its mistake, apologized to the Kirk family, its readers, and the broader public, and removed the cartoon from its platforms,” Garcia wrote in a statement after the apology was released.
“On behalf of the Suffolk County and Brookhaven Republican Committees, I accept this apology. We recognize that owning up to such an egregious error is not easy, and we hope this moment serves as a reminder to every newsroom in America that words and images matter,” he said.
Some readers were still disheartened by the outlet’s choice to publish the cartoon in the first place.
“How can you even come back from this?” one user wrote.
It is unclear if Bok — who has penned cartoons for the Chicago Tribune, Washington Post, New York Times, Los Angeles Times, Time and Newsweek — was terminated following the publishing of the cartoon or if he works with the publication on a freelance basis.
Newsday did not respond to a request for additional comment at the time of publication.
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