In case you missed it, the New York Post ran one of the more absurd front pages in recent memory on Thursday, outfitting Iraq Study Group co-chairmen James Baker and Lee Hamilton in chimp suits beneath the loud headline “SURRENDER MONKEYS: Iraq panel urges U.S. to give up.”
“Sound the retreat!” said the paper’s front-page blurb, explaining that the ISG “delivered its long-awaited report to President Bush yesterday — and it’s chock-full of ways to get out of Iraq, without a single suggestion of how to defeat the terrorist thugs.”
And voila, the Post‘s graphic masters had created self-fulfilling news.
“Post’s chimp wimps make D.C. go ape,” the Post declared on page four today, noting, “The front page of yesterday’s New York Post, depicting the two chairmen of the Iraq Study Group as chimps under the headline ‘Surrender Monkeys,’ was the talk of Washington, creating ripples from Capitol Hill to the White House.” (The Post also ran two thumbnails of its front page in yesterday and today’s papers.)
The story quoted Rick Santorum — honestly — then reported that the front page “caught the attention of panel members as they made the rounds on Capitol Hill lobbying for adoption of their proposals.” They were crushed, no doubt.
As further proof that its gambit had indeed made the capital “go ape,” the Post cited mentions of it on Fox News and in the Washington Times.
Oy. That’s the newspaper business these days, folks, New York Post style.
Edward B. Colby was a writer at CJR Daily.