Not since the very brief of heyday of the late, unlamented Critical Sports Blog has there been as clumsy or witless an attempt at satire as The Independent’s “Low Tidings” (“girls think I’m cute. I’m kind of like Will Smith, except he’s got those Dumbo ears and mine are normal”), The Jerry Della Femina-owner paper published an editorial penned by “Yo Mama Bin Barack” (“part of my strategy of becoming our first black president is to deny I am black unless I am campaigning in Harlem”) so intensely cringeworthy, it’s a wonder Bernard McGuirk hasn’t asked the author out for a drink.
Newsday’s Mitchell Freedman reports The Indy’s editor, Rick Murphy, has apologized to those offended and has promised to remove the editorial from the paper’s website in their near future. Apparently, they’ve only got internet access on even days of the month. That said, I think Murphy oughta leave the offending item online and let his readership and advertisers decide for themselves if he’s a full blown racist or just pitifully unfunny. Or perhaps some combination of the two.