As the New York Post chimpanzee cartoon February 18 continues to debated among the punditocracy one point needs to be made from a simple journalistic standpoint.

When I was a youngster starting in high school journalism in Los Angeles the one thing we always had, and that any journalistic enterprise of any size or significance possesses, is an editorial desk.  

Since we went over the spelling of a high school running back's name as if we were writing up the D-Day Invasion, with our editors insisting we obtain correct information, then how could the New York Post be given any kind of a pass on this one on the rationale of "No harm, no foul, we meant nothing racist"?  

It was all, as Post Editor-in-Chief Col Allan labeled it, "clear parody."