Under the cover

By Libby

I'm already tired of hearing about the New Yorker cover but the debate is still raging on all over the place so I'll share a few last thoughts. I didn't think it was funny. Good drawing. Bad satire. My friend Jules shows us how it could have been done better.

Jonathan Alter makes a good case for those who are arguing that it perpetuates the meme rather than succeeding in mocking it. That's probably true, but I don't know that it matters much. Those who are convinced about the veracity of the smears aren't likely to be swayed by logic or truth. The anecdotal evidence for that is this comment left on a listserv I'm on.

I've already had it sent to me a dozen times by wingers claiming it's proof that even the Liberal New Yorker knows what Obama's REALLY like, and that all the Democrats WANT this because they're all anti-american proMuslim terrorists...

But the best critique I've seen came from the imcomparable Jon Swift. Now he's funny. As they say, read it all, but here's a quick clip.

The illustration might also have been acceptable if the New Yorker ran it on the inside of the magazine where people who are sensitive to mockery would not have run across it casually on a newsstand. Or they might also have enclosed this issue in a brown paper bag the way pornographic magazines sometimes are to keep it away from the eyes of children and people with heart trouble (how many children have been traumatized for life and how many deaths this cover has caused will only be known in the coming weeks). While the cover may have met the community standards of a place like New York where people apparently don't mean what they say, there are some parts of the country where satire is just not acceptable in public.

Meanwhile, while all the chatter is over the cover, I wonder how many people have bothered to read the article? I suspect not many.

Comments

[carol]

it could be the most well written article in the world, but the New Yorker isn't getting a dime of my money. Sure, I could read it free on the net, but honestly don't want to chance even more mind numbingly stupid and sensational cartoons next to the text. Sorry, that's just how I feel about it.

[Libby]

I've seen virtually no coverage of the actual article Carol. I haven't had time to read it myself. I bet the author is pissed that the cover overshadowed the story.