New Yorker Cover: Poignant Satire or Tasteless Offense?

This week's cover of the New Yorker, right, is barely off the presses and already has people talking, bloggers blogging, and presidential hopefuls on both sides of the fence agreeing that in this case, the magazine has simply gone too far.

The cartoonist claims he wanted to illustrate the preposterous claim that Obama is unpatriotic, or worse, a terrorist. The magazine itself, no stranger to social satire but always respected for its intelligence and depth compared to other, increasingly shallow media, is nevertheless in hot water over this one.

Tell us what you think.

[Image: New Yorker cover illustration by Barry Blitt, Issue: July 21, 2008, AP photo]

David Alm
2 Comments |

1 Vote

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Posted on 07/14/08 in Political Landscape

Comments (2)

I have just canceled my subscription to the New Yorker because of this cover 'cartoon'. The readers are sophisticated enough to 'get' the satire - did no one at the magazine think it wouldn't be picked up by other media and shown all over the world? To paraphrase Justice Thomas this is nothing but media lynching!

By sandymac | July 14, 2008 4:25 PM | Reply

Coincidentally, the Wall Street Journal ran a lead story over the weekend called "Why Islam is Unfunny for a Cartoonist":

http://online.wsj.com/public/article/SB121581460304047109.html?mod=2_1578_topbox

By Dominic Basulto | July 15, 2008 1:33 PM | Reply

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