Did the New Yorker go too far?
The current race for the presidency continues to be fraught with controversy, and this week it got a little more outlandish, as the cover of the New Yorker shocked the nation with a cartoon intended to be satirical. Barack Obama is shown as a Muslim, and his wife is decked out as a terrorist. The obvious INTENT of this liberal magazine is to poke FUN at this idea, which is held by a certain portion of the U.S. population.
So much for their INTENT. Needless to say, the whole idea has created a firestorm of controversy, has been called "tasteless and offensive" by the Obama camp, and even John McCain has called it offensive, as well.
David Remnick, editor-in-chief of the New Yorker, explained the magazine's rationale:
"The intent of the cover is to satirize the vicious and racist attacks and rumors and misconceptions about the Obamas that have been floating around in the blogosphere and are reflected in public opinion polls," Remnick says. "What we set out to do was to throw all these images together, which are all over the top and to shine a kind of harsh light on them, to satirize them. That's part of what we do."
However, satire is a tricky device. Many, many people take satire literally. About one out of 10 Americans continue to believe that Sen. Barack Obama, D-Illinois, is a Muslim, after all. For them, and for many other observers, there is no "satire" involved in this issue; they look at the cover and simply say, "So, we knew it all along!"
It's not as if Remnick was unaware of what might happen with this magazine cover:
"Satire always comes with some risk and the chance of people misunderstanding it, but if you're going to satirize things only that there's a 100% census on, there's no satire," he said. "There's maybe a certain percentage of the public that thinks there was no moon landing, should we not satirize that?"
Polls in some states show that a fifth of white Democrats will not vote for Obama simply on the basis of color. It would appear that the New Yorker may have inadvertantly added fuel to the fire.
Observations?
Comments
- -- Posted by shannonhoon on Mon, Jul 14, 2008, at 9:35 PM
- -- Posted by goat lady on Mon, Jul 14, 2008, at 9:50 PM
- -- Posted by layne staley on Mon, Jul 14, 2008, at 10:00 PM
- -- Posted by mrsdolphin on Mon, Jul 14, 2008, at 11:15 PM
- -- Posted by BonScott on Mon, Jul 14, 2008, at 11:18 PM
- -- Posted by shannonhoon on Mon, Jul 14, 2008, at 11:36 PM
- -- Posted by BonScott on Mon, Jul 14, 2008, at 11:41 PM
- -- Posted by I.B. Le Truth on Tue, Jul 15, 2008, at 12:12 AM
- -- Posted by goat lady on Tue, Jul 15, 2008, at 5:38 AM
- -- Posted by shannonhoon on Tue, Jul 15, 2008, at 10:50 AM
- -- Posted by Ducky on Tue, Jul 15, 2008, at 11:08 AM
- -- Posted by FJGuy on Tue, Jul 15, 2008, at 2:08 PM
- -- Posted by swift on Tue, Jul 15, 2008, at 4:44 PMMadeline Dejournett's response:I saw where you asked me if I was going to do another political blog. I don't think so - unless one falls into my lap like the last two did. They were just too ridiculous to pass up. Somebody had to write about them - there was just no choice. I'd rather write about light, fluffy topics, but I'll take a walk on the wild side occasionally.
- -- Posted by swift on Tue, Jul 15, 2008, at 4:45 PM
- -- Posted by shannonhoon on Tue, Jul 15, 2008, at 5:39 PM
- -- Posted by goat lady on Tue, Jul 15, 2008, at 8:32 PM
- -- Posted by dimebag darrell on Wed, Jul 16, 2008, at 12:24 AM
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- -- Posted by FJGuy on Wed, Jul 16, 2008, at 12:44 PM
- -- Posted by I.B. Le Truth on Wed, Jul 16, 2008, at 2:52 PM
- -- Posted by layne staley on Wed, Jul 16, 2008, at 9:47 PM
- -- Posted by shannonhoon on Wed, Jul 16, 2008, at 11:27 PM
- -- Posted by BonScott on Wed, Jul 16, 2008, at 11:38 PM
- -- Posted by shannonhoon on Thu, Jul 17, 2008, at 7:21 PM
- -- Posted by Jim Morrison on Thu, Jul 17, 2008, at 11:42 PM
- -- Posted by layne staley on Thu, Jul 17, 2008, at 11:52 PM
- -- Posted by swift on Fri, Jul 18, 2008, at 3:49 PM
- -- Posted by shannonhoon on Sat, Jul 19, 2008, at 7:53 PM
- -- Posted by layne staley on Sat, Jul 19, 2008, at 11:18 PM
- -- Posted by swift on Mon, Jul 21, 2008, at 3:23 PM
- -- Posted by layne staley on Tue, Jul 22, 2008, at 9:25 PM
- -- Posted by swift on Wed, Jul 23, 2008, at 3:18 PM
- -- Posted by layne staley on Thu, Jul 24, 2008, at 4:38 AM
- -- Posted by swift on Thu, Jul 24, 2008, at 4:12 PM
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