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Home › Politics

Politics | 07/15/2008 8:45 am

World Weighs in on New Yorker's Obama Cover

By The Staff at wowOwow.com
A media frenzy has erupted over this week’s cover of The New Yorker magazine, which depicts Obama in one-piece Muslim attire and headdress fist-bumping his booted, Afro-wearing wife Michelle in camouflage clothing with an AK-47 and ammo-belt slung over her shoulder. They stand beneath a portrait of Osama bin Laden while the American flag burns in the fireplace – in the presidential Oval Office.

Obama spokesman Bill Burton said in a statement reported by CBS News: "The New Yorker may think, as one of their staff explained to us, that their cover is a satirical lampoon of the caricature Sen. Obama’s right-wing critics have tried to create, but most readers will see it as tasteless and offensive. And we agree."

McCain spokesman Tucker Bounds agreed with the Obama campaign, calling it "tasteless and offensive," too.

Fox news released a statement from The New Yorker’s editors who said that the cover shouldn’t be taken literally. The cover "combines a number of fantastical images about the Obamas and shows them for the obvious distortions they are," they said.

"The burning flag, the nationalist-radical and Islamic outfits, the fist-bump, the portrait on the wall? All of them echo one attack or another. Satire is part of what we do, and it is meant to bring things out into the open, to hold up a mirror to prejudice, the hateful and the absurd. And that’s the spirit of this cover," reads the statement.

What do you think of the cover?

Read more about: Barack Obama, Illustrations, John McCain, Media, News, Politics, Satire, The New Yorker

198 Reader Comments (so far…) Sign In or Register to comment

Diana T
Linda, I am always hearing people say this even though they deep down know it isn’t true. But, remember that Kerry’s war service was in question even after the Swift Boaters were proven wrong, and then, look what that bunch did to Max Cleland. I’m telling you, I think the New Yorker just added fuel to the fire. Perhaps people that live in places like N.Y. city or the Beltway haven’t a clue what the climate is out here in the real world.
By Diana T on 07/15/2008 2:45 pm
beverly linens
Diana T, you are absolutely right. They don’t have a clue. We here in Portland Oregon think everyone thinks like us. My daughters friends in New York think it is funny and absurd, my friends think it is funny, except my sister in law, who believes anything anybody says negative about a democrat.
By beverly linens on 07/15/2008 6:55 pm
Diana T
You know, Beverly, I just had a friend say something during a phone conversation that made my eyes well up: She was as disgusted by the cover as the rest of us and she said, “How do you think the family members of the ones that were killed on 9-11 felt when they saw the cover?” So, ask that to the folks who think it is funny and absurd.
By Diana T on 07/15/2008 7:49 pm
beverly linens
Diana T, the new yorkers know that the magazine is poking fun at the people who believe that the nonsense is true. Your friend is projecting her way of seeing the world on new yorkers. The New Yorker magazine does know its demographics. It is the rest of us who are struggling. My daughter loves irony, sometimes I have difficulty seperating it from ridicule. For us that becomes a FIGHT.
By beverly linens on 07/15/2008 9:44 pm
Diana T
I hear you. That’s why my sister forbids my middle nephew to bring up any form of politics at family dinners(Thanksgiving, Seder, etc). He just loves to get us going; he is 46 yrs. old and that’s old enough to know better, but you can see him chomping at the bit.
By Diana T on 07/15/2008 10:04 pm
Linda Mason
Well, I’m going to confuse things here, because I’m another Linda. But I’m not letting the NY off the hook based on its disingenuous claim that it did not realize how controversial its cover would be! This is the NEW YORKER!!! The ultimate sophisticate! It cannot plead ignorance of the impact of the media, or that it did not realize that the cover would be seen by the unwashed west of the Hudson! PUH-LEEZ!!!
By Linda Mason on 07/16/2008 9:31 pm
theCHEROKEErose
isnt that a weeeeeee bit x-treme, linda
By theCHEROKEErose on 07/16/2008 10:09 am
Bonnie Oliver
Cherokee - With regard to your last paragraph about the Obama children. They will be impacted and it cannot be helped. But that is their father’s fault inasmuch as he decided to make his run for the Presidency while his children are so very young. I think his decision put a terrific burden on his wife to be the primary parent to the girls and also to the daughters who will have to be reassurred when these types of stories appear. They are young and impressionable.
By Bonnie Oliver on 07/15/2008 9:31 pm
Diana T
How many kids did Teddy Roosevelt have when he became president at 41 yrs. old?
By Diana T on 07/15/2008 10:05 pm
Bonnie Oliver
Diana T - TR had six children, Alice being the eldest and a teenager when he became President. However, we lived in different times and America was not the sole super power. Fast communication was still the telegraph wire. The media was not as intrusive as we see today. It is not a fair comparison.
By Bonnie Oliver on 07/15/2008 11:06 pm
beverly linens
Bonnie, that Alice was a trouble maker. heh heh heh
By beverly linens on 07/16/2008 1:12 am
Bonnie Oliver
Yeah - she was that alright. As a young girl I remember when one of the Johnson girls was married at the White House and there was much ado about this rather thin, very elderly lady being escorted to her seat. It was Alice Longworth nee Roosevelt. Still imposing and garnering attention. I would like to know what she was thinking that day …perhaps remembering when she too was married and her own wedding at the White House???
By Bonnie Oliver on 07/16/2008 2:33 am
beverly linens
I’m probably a generation ahead of you. I remember thinking she would say something outrageous in the reception line. Of course LBJ could probably out do her. It was probably at that wedding that most of us learned what renegade she was. I remember someone saying no one could shut her up.
By beverly linens on 07/16/2008 3:11 am
DeBúrca obj
Cherokee, your post is a perfect example of why this is a failed attempt at satire. The intent of the cartoon was to ridicule the perpetrators of the smear campaign against Obama and the ridiculous rumors being spread via the internet with the help of FOX news that Obama is a muslim, isn’t patriotic, etc. The fact that you didn’t get it, shows they failed to put it into a context that the average person can understand.
By DeBúrca obj on 07/17/2008 8:56 pm
beatriz m
Tasteless and not as innocent as the Editor tried to make it appear on CNN last night evening.
By beatriz m on 07/15/2008 9:07 am
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