TODAY'S LIES

The New Yorker Cover

This entry was posted on 7/14/2008 9:33 PM and is filed under 2008 Election, All Posts.

If you've pulled off the amazing feat of having missed the controversial cover of this week's New Yorker, here it is:



Where to begin?  The "terrorist" fist bump.  Michelle's afro.  Her AK-47.  His "Muslim" wardrobe.  The portrait of Osama on the wall of the Oval Office, looking lovingly down on his two acolytes.  The burning American flag in the fireplace.  A catch-all of the Obama smears in one, instantly notorious rendering. 

Obviously, it's an attempt at satire, not an attempt to further the spread of these lies .  Why is it obvious?  Because it's on the cover of the New Yorker, a magazine for liberal smartypants.  If it was on the cover of the National Review, it would be taken at face value. 

A debate has been raging throughout the liberal blogosphere all day about whether this was a failure at satire, or whether people are just too damned sensitive.  I think it's a failure, simply because the only way it works is if it's on the cover of this particular magazine.  Anywhere else, it's the same hateful propaganda sneaking through everyone's spam filter.

The New Yorker is probably too smart for its own good, and probably is giving the American voter too much credit.  The Obama campaign may have reacted too harshly, feeding into the media frenzy and giving the story—and the images they are so worried about disseminating—longer legs.  On the other hand, if they don't react harshly to this kind of thing coming from a liberal magazine, how do they have any credibility to protest when it's spread by Sean Hannity?

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Comments

• 7/15/2008 10:51 AM drew wrote:
  Much Ado about Nothing.
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• 7/15/2008 12:56 PM Mama A wrote:
  What WERE they thinkin'? The New Yorker is supposed to be on O'Bama's side! Satire shouldn't play out so easily as the opposition's propoganda.
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• 7/19/2008 8:05 AM morris buttermaker wrote:
  I think you are right on target about the New Yorker giving Americans too much credit. Honestly, I think its a little naive on their part to not realize that their cartoon will now be a tool for the right. Heck, this is the type of offensive cartoon you might see posted anonymously on telephone poles the day before an election. Not a smart move move by the New Yorker.
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