Monday, July 14, 2008

New Week--New Outrage: The Obama Cover of the New Yorker

A new week is upon us and that means a new reason for the mild to be outraged about something pertaining to campaign 2008. Ironically, I think the most offensive aspect of this election process has been its cost and length. However, this week's fury is aimed at the New Yorker and the cover they put out on the right. Take note of their portrayal of Michelle Obama's "radial" Afro, her machine gun, the American flag in the fire place, Barack's Muslim garb and of course, the ever dangerous terrorist fist jab. This is classic satire and, in my opinion, a very effective and thought provoking cover. I should also point out that the article is very good as well.

So whats the rub? It seems that much of the "fury" is over the idea that many will take the cover literally, and that it will reinforce some people's worst fears and misconceptions about Sen. Obama.
Both campaigns have predictably condemned the cover.

The New Yorker has argued that the sketch "combines a number of fantastical images about the Obamas and shows them for the obvious distortions they are."

I love the drawing and what it represents, which in my opinion is poking at closed minded and gullible Americans that do not know how to fact check emails, mostly because they want to believe what they read. And lets be honest, the 12% of Americans that think Obama is a Muslim probably don't know what the New Yorker is, let alone read it.

Like most outrage about satire, many are upset about the wrong things. The foolish, xenophobic, racist behavior that fueled this cover is what we should be angry about. The drawing is not tasteless, but what it's portraying is.

This is not a bigger story than El Presidente lifting the executive order prohibiting off-shore oil drilling, InBev being able to use 32.7 Billion Euros for a 52 Billion buyout of Anheuser-Busch, or the 9 U.S. solders that got killed in Afghanistan today.

MSNBC's bad journalist Contessa Brewer just used the term "fallout" regarding this New Yorker story. I am almost certain that she, or some other turd of her ilk will refer to this as New Yorker-Gate by sunset.

On a side note, to honor Bastille Day, we will be running an 8 part series breaking down the race to find dark matter in our world, the 2008 NFL season, and all things French. The first installment of the series should be hitting this site shortly.

3 comments:

puddy said...

well... people are going to complain about something, right?

at least the pic depicts them TFJing in the oval office...

Randal Graves said...

Browns in '08! Take that, frogs! I barely checked the news on the tubes the last few days, so I didn't even know all about this brouhaha that seemed to have pissed everyone off on both sides.

I can see how some on the left are annoyed, but let's face it, satire is long dead, so even if the New Yorker put up a cover with a caricatured McCain surrounded by lobbyists, piles of money, big oil execs, his robot wife, and self-loathing Republicans, it would probably be as comical as this one, i.e. eliciting half-hearted chuckles.

I'm with you: anger directed at the wrong thing. If you're that bummed out by it, get bummed out about the sources of the wingnut narrative.

Kup said...

Well said Mr. Graves.