The New Yorker Cover

Thought I should comment on that. Obama's camp is apparently livid at what the magazine calls an obviously satirical photo.

I'm torn, honestly. On the one hand, I think it's a funny image. Hell, I laugh at much, much more inappropriate things every day. Most New Yorker readers will also be able to see it as satire. The magazine claims to have used the cartoon as a cover image to generate discussion as well as controversy. On the other hand, though, I do think that the image is inappropriate and the fact that it's on the cover as opposed to on the inside of the magazine bothers me for some reason I can't quite put my finger on. It's probably a deep mistrust of cable media's ability to really take this picture and use it as a springboard for serious discussion. Hell, I think that one of the groups satirized by the image is the media who run with these right wing talking points so very well.

It's frustrating that people do think that Obama is a terrorist Muslim fanatic and Michelle a radical America-hating Black Panther. Precisely because of that, I think it's a funny image. I'm not a national magazine, however. I really think this will generate more press about the New Yorker than it will spark serious discussion on CNN and MSNBC about why some people hold this view of the Obamas.

And here is another good point, although a bit overly dramatic.

[Edit -- Neither of the Obama-related articles in this issue of the New Yorker - one, a brief comment lampooning the flip-flop nonsense, the other a quite long piece about Obama's Chicago roots - have anything to do with the subject matter the cover satirizes. This just further makes me question why that cover was approved.]