The New Yorker Obama Cover: Obama Cartoon Sparks Controversy!
Posted on July 14, 2008
New Yorker Magazine cover of Barack Obama cartoon by Barry Blitt, depicting Obama in traditional Muslim garb, and Obama’s wife as a terrorist, is causing controversy!
The New Yorker magazine says the cartoon is intended as a satirical comment about some of the distorted right-wing attacks on the Democratic senator.
An Obama campaign spokesman said the cartoon was “tasteless and offensive”.
A spokesman for John McCain, Obama’s Republican rival in the presidential election, also criticized the cartoon.
The Obama cartoon was drawn by Barry Blitt and featured on the front cover of this week’s New Yorker Magazine. The cartoon shows Barack Obama wearing a traditional muslim dress, and his wife, Michelle, dressed in combat pants and carrying a machine gun.
To add fuel to the fire, the cartoon depicts the couple as standing in the Oval Office, greeting one another with a “fist bump”, with an American flag burning in the fireplace, and a portrait of Osama Bin Laden on the wall.
The New Yorker magazine issued a statement saying the cartoon “combines a number of fantastical images about the Obamas and shows them for the obvious distortions they are.”
The New Yorker said the cover, called “The Politics of Fear”, was a critique of unfounded allegations that have tried to portray Mr Obama, a Christian, as a closet radical Muslim.
“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 statement said.
The portrayal of the Obamas “fist-bumping” one another was a reference to a campaign rally in St Paul, Minnesota, back in June, at which the couple were seen to “fist-bump”, an action described by one Fox News commentator as a “terrorist fist-jab”.
The New Yorker magazine said in addition to the Obama cartoon cover, that it also had “very serious” articles about Obama.
But Obama spokesman Bill Burton dismissed the cartoon, saying: “”The New Yorker may think… that their cover is a satirical lampoon of the caricature Senator Obama’s right-wing critics have tried to create, but most readers will see it as tasteless and offensive. And we agree.”
So what do you guys think of New Yorker Magazine’s Obama cover? Funny or in bad taste?
Images: WENN
Source: news
7 comments
WHY do they have Obama beside flags when
he will NOT wear one NOR will he salute one?
Obama has NO respect for our flag nor the National
Anthem. His wife and his preacher hated our
country until he became a possible presidential
candidate. When he becomes president they will
hug and jump up and down…..on our flag and
our nation. This cartoon couldn’t be MORE TRUE.
Sometimes TRUTH HURTS…….and the more it
hurts, the TRUER it is. OUCH…….Whoa…….
I smell a flag burning~!!!!!
The New Yorker had guts and I ADMIRE them for
drawing upon the TRUTH. AMEN.
Spoken like a truly uninformed person. I’m embarrassed for you.
OK Ann, so you saw a photo on FOX News of Obama not saluting during the anthem and the commentators stating he’s not patriotic. If FOX says it, it’s the GOSPEL.
Also you took the statement of Mrs. Obama way out of context and since FOX News continued to hammer that story, she’s has to be a terrorist.
Get off your couch, stopping watching TV and get in touch with the real world.
It sickens me how some people can be so shallow/one sided on a story. Look into the full story before commenting!!!!!!
This is dishonest, specious, and cowardly.
VOTE OBAMA 08′
The portrait should have been of Karl Marx. That would be closer to their real views. He is no doubt the worst thing that could happen to this country right now.
However many people were responsible for ‘okaying’ the Obama cover should be immediately required by New Yorker publisher to subject themselves to toxicology screen tests. I would suggest looking for high levels of alcohol in their blodd work or crystal meth in their toxicology screen.
I am 68 years old, I grew up admiring and reading your magazine. Who would have imagined that one unbelievably stupid editorial decision would destroy 55 years of admiration and respect. But you’ve managed to allow that to happen. I’m not alone, I know. I hope certain responsible writers i.e. Seymour Hersh will have the self-respect never to publish in your now severely tarnished magazine again.
Farewell lifelong icon: it turns out to be true! The bigger you are, the harder you fall. Nancy Mikelsons