The New Yorker Cover - Will they Get the Satire?

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There has been a lot of talk and spin today about this week's issue of The New Yorker Magazine's controversial cover featuring Barack and Michelle Obama in the Oval Office, doing a fist-bump, he wearing a turban and she in fatigues and holding an AK47. There's a U.S. Flag burning in the fireplace and a portrait of Osama Bin Laden hanging on the wall. The editor of The New Yorker says it was obviously intended to be satire, and to make fun of the outrageous rumors and viral e-mail campaigns going around about the Obama's but I really fear there are too many people who will take this picture, obvious caricature or not, at face value! http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080714/ap_on_el_pr/obama_new_yorker "The New Yorker may think, as one of their staff explained to us, that their cover is a satirical lampoon of the caricature Senator Obama's right-wing critics have tried to create," said Obama campaign spokesman Bill Burton. "But most readers will see it as tasteless and offensive. And we agree." n a statement Monday, the magazine said the cover "combines a number of fantastical images about the Obamas and shows them for the obvious distortions they are." "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," the New Yorker statement said. The statement also pointed to the two articles on Obama contained inside the magazine, calling them "very serious." (End of excerpt) I really fear many people who are not regular readers of The New Yorker may see this cover and say, "SEE!! I told you he's a radical Muslim and she's an anti-white militant!" The latest Newsweek poll shows that 12% of those surveyed believe Obama is a Muslim and even more believe he went to a Muslim school as a child in Indonesia - which is NOT true, by the way, he went to a government run state school in Indonesia which was not affiliated with any religion. I know there are a lot of anti-Obama members here but I'd really like to keep this discussion on-topic instead of turning into a contest about who can post the latest, most far-out e-mail allegation. Please, when you respond try to simply answer a few simple questions and obviously feel free to give your honest opinions on the topic itself. 1/ Do you think the "average" American will "get" the satire or will they look at the cover and take it as an attack on Obama? Please keep in mind that there are many people who aren't all that familiar, if at all, with this magazine and for them tis many be their first real exposure to it. 2/ IF you were part of the Obama campaign or a supporter of him, how would you feel about this cover? Would you be offended, angry, amused or more or less indifferent, believing it won't really affect many voters one way or another and this media attention will be over, possibly as soon as tomorrow? 3/ IF you were a McCain supporter or just someone who is against Obama, how would YOU feel about this cover? Would it make you happy and would you think it may take some votes away from him? 4/ This really only matters to the publishers of The New Yorker, and it's no doubt the reason for this cover to begin with, no matter what their political beliefs are; do you think it will sell more magazines than usual and increase their circulation, at least for this week? Annie