I think this is the first "mainstream" news item that I have blogged about and I must admit, I have very mixed feelings about it. "It" being both the cover and posting a blog entry about something that is discussed on the nightly news and cable channels ad nauseum.As I write this post I'm still not sure what I think about the depiction. What I do know is that for the vast majority of people it will have no impact whatsoever. Those who believed the lies and smears will see this as a validation of their misguided beliefs while others will see it as a despicable attack that has no place in our public discourse. Both views are illustrated below by two comments that were posted within minutes of one another on another blog:
Posted by: kal | Jul 14, 2008 9:39:12 AMI've been contemplating this off and on all day and had a long conversation with my brother-in-law about it this evening. To say the least, it has been a roller-coaster ride. Some thoughts that came to mind, pretty much in the order that I had them throughout the day:
This isn't satire it's foreshawdowing. It shows the Obama's exactly how the people see them. Don't kid youself into thinking otherwise.
Posted by: LarryT | Jul 14, 2008 9:37:05 AM
what you dummies don't realize is that people dumb enough to think that this is meant to be an accurate picture of the Obamas, don't read the New Yorker anyway. They watch NASCAR and FOX News and probably don't even know what the New Yorker is. Hell, most of them probably haven't read anything more challenging than the National Enquirer in their entire adult lives. This isn't going to hurt Obama one bit.
- Anger - This is ridiculous and totally despicable.
- Philosophical - Loosen up, it's art.
- Rationalization - The people that will see this as validation of their beliefs wouldn't have voted for Obama anyway.
- Conspiracy - Some people won't "get" the satire. The cover perpetuates lies and smears and even some liberals want to torpedo an African-American from being elected President.
- Optimist - Drawing attention to the smears and lies highlights how utterly false and ridiculous they are. This can be beneficial.
- Opportunist - No publicity is bad.
After cogitating (every now and then) on the cover (I haven't read the article yet) for the past 12 hours or so I've developed a certain level of comfort with the Optimist view...I think! It may be because I generally take a more optimistic view of things or maybe because I just see it as the best of the worst. Call me naive but it is what it is. I'm very interested in hearing your view. Please comment on this posting if you'd like.
| The Daily Show With Jon Stewart | Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c | |||
| Obama Cartoon | ||||
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1 comment:
Hmmmmmm...I went through the same stages as you did with this cover. But it is in very bad taste and so is the timing, though I agree with you that it will not change those of the mind to vote for Obama come November. This New Yorker stopped reading the New Yorker a while ago for other reasons and now I'm glad I did.
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