News-Record.com

I'm sick and tired of liberals and their hypocrisy. You guys have no problem when this stuff happens to republicans on a daily basis by the mainstream media.

Could not agree more, the New Yorker has ripped Bush many times, have yet to read one word about it. Mr. Johnson has the NR every complained about this? Got a dozen any brand golf balls that says you have not. Do we have a bet?

You are right. The magazine has skewered Bush on a number of covers. And, no, we have not complained about it.

I would wager that most of the people out there who think Obama has secret terrorist aspirations have never held a copy of the New Yorker in their hands, but now most assuredly they will look at it.
Would have been better to let this pass.

I'm sure The New Yorker had this in mind. They've already admitted they wanted the "buzz" they knew this cover would create.
The problem I have it they've helped substantiate a myth in some people's (limited) view.
In the interest of full disclosure, I really like this magazine. It is intelligent and topical. It gives its audience credit for thinking and being interested in more than colors and pictures.
So, I am disappointed.

It's satire, and pretty good, which means it can offend the people whose views are being parodied and also those who think the subjects should be off limits to satire.

So now my question becomes, why all the outcry when Obama get hit, and never none when Bush gets hit? If you want to be president you should be tough! Now for a another question, sometime shortly before 9/11 most liberal media, ran a picture of terrorist taking target practice at Bush. Did the NR run this cartoon are not? I know for a fact WFMY showed it, and defended it as free speech. WDBJ ran it and issued a retraction.

No, we did not run such a cartoon -- it was a political cartoon, right?
To be clear, presidents and presidential candidates are fair game for lampooning in political cartoons.
But we try to use some discretion in how far we'll go. We consider such factors as taste and community standards.
We are more liable to tweak the powerful than the powerless. We don't poke fun at minorities. We try to avoid sexist cartoons (and quite a few cross the transom).
There have been a number attacking Bush that have not made the cut.
It's an inexact science.
As for the controversial cartoon of the day, I haven't gotten my New Yorker yet, but I've heard that the article inside on Obama and Chicago politics is fascinating.

Obama is not ready for prime time. We are just getting to know him. He stands a good chance of losing if he doesn't get the the flip-flopping problem under control. What are is core values? Why can't we see them? We expect our President to make hard decisions, not try to be be all things to all people. The election is his to lose and he may lose it.

Allen: "We don't poke fun at minorities. We try to avoid sexist cartoons (and quite a few cross the transom)."

Well, there you go. If women and racial minorities are off limits, then you begin to understand why this cartoon pushes buttons. Because Michelle has an Afro. I read an interesting piece the other day on how the late night comics can't get a bite on Obama, mainly because of unspoken codes against "racist" humor. This cartoon violates those codes. No wonder the liberal press goes bonkers (although it's happy to not go bonkers if we're talking about, say, Clarence Thomas).

Jeez, it's a cartoon, and a pretty funny one. Although I'm not one of the highbrow elite who subscribes to the New Yorker--it's too inside for me, like "Sex and the City"--you gotta love their cartoons. If it offends people, big deal. People get offended over almost anything these days. Get over it.

Some people even got offended when Richard Petty thoughtfully bumped that idiot who was driving the speed limit in the fast lane.

On the subject of satire, are we to be held to the satiric standard of the least common denominator: that is, that if some idiot might take it seriously, then we are to avoid? That way lies madness. There are some incredibly earnest and stupid people out there. We shouldn't let them run our lives or our cartoons.

As for letting Ric Flair run our state, I say "Woooo." To be the man, you gotta beat the man.

I should clarify my comment that we don't poke fun at minorities -- not as a group. Obama as an individual candidate is fair game. It would be unfair to treat him otherwise.
We've run critical cartoons of Jesse Jackson, Michael Jackson, Obama, and, yes, Clarence Thomas, as well as some local African American elected officials.
But we try not to disparage groups of people, especially the powerless. For instance, I shy away from Oliphant cartoons that poke fun at poor whites in Appalachia and stereotypical poor whites in trailer parks.
Speaking of Clarence Thomas, one of the most famous magazine covers of him ever was an Emerge magazine front that depicted him with a handkerchief on his head.
And, yes, it caused a stir.
Emerge was a public affairs magazine aimed at African Americans and, like The New Yorker, contained some very good journalism.
As for whether outrage over the Obama cover is strictly a liberal phenomenon, the McCain campaign also condemned it.

I

McCain's a liberal. Everybody's a liberal, except for a select few.

I understand your criterion, but it clearly comes into play with Obama. You can make fun of Clinton or Bush for being a dumb hick or being fat, and there's a stereotype threshold there that most people are comfortable with. With a black candidate, no one's sure where that threshold is.

Obama's problem is that he's looking as humorless as John Kerry or Al Gore. From the web:

Obama Releases List of Approved Jokes About Himself
Bid to Help Late Night Comics

Saying he is “sympathetic to late night comedians’ struggle to find jokes to make about me,” Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill) today issued a list of official campaign-approved Barack Obama jokes.

The five jokes, which Sen. Obama said he is making available to all comedians free of charge, are as follows:

Barack Obama and a kangaroo pull up to a gas station. The gas station attendant takes one look at the kangaroo and says, “You know, we don’t get many kangaroos here.” Barack Obama replies, “At these prices, I’m not surprised. That’s why we need to reduce our dependence on foreign oil.”

A traveling salesman knocks on the door of a farmhouse, and much to his surprise, Barack Obama answers the door. The salesman says, “I was expecting the farmer’s daughter.” Barack Obama replies, “She’s not here. The farm was foreclosed on because of subprime loans that are making a mockery of the American Dream.”

A horse walks into a bar. The bartender says, “Why the long face?” Barack Obama replies, “His jockey just lost his health insurance, which should be the right of all Americans.”

Q: What’s black and white and red all over?
Barack Obama: The New Yorker magazine, which should be embarrassed after publishing such a tasteless and offensive cover, which I reject and denounce.

A Christian, a Jew and Barack Obama are in a rowboat in the middle of the ocean. Barack Obama says, “This joke isn’t going to work because there’s no Muslim in this boat.”

That’s funny stuff, Brian. And I agree. For someone with so much personal charisma and charm, Obama has become stiff and humorless.
He does need to loosen up.

As for The New Yorker cover, I dunno.
Here’s what one letter writer argued in today’s New York Times:

“My dictionary defines satire as ‘a literary work in which human vice or folly is attacked through irony, derision or wit.’ The problem with Barry Blitt’s illustration on The New Yorker cover is that there is nothing to indicate that right-wing fomenters, not Barack and Michelle Obama, are being attacked with this array of fear- and hatred-mongering images.

Thus, as satire, it fails miserably because the target, if Mr. Blitt and his editors are to be believed, is nowhere to be seen. One is left to assume that the illustrator is attacking the two people he’s drawn in this provocative setting. The artist could have creatively corrected his oversight and made his message clearer. As is, there’s no ‘wit’ apparent here.”

Though satire can fall flat if it’s too obvious, she raises some good points.

The Eagles had a song several years ago that provided politicians, like Obama, with some advice about things like this. He should take the advice.

I turn on the tube and what do I see
A whole lotta people cryin’ ’don’t blame me’
They point their crooked little fingers ar everybody else
Spend all their time feelin’ sorry for themselves
Victim of this, victim of that
Your momma’s too thin; your daddy’s too fat

Get over it
Get over it
All this whinin’ and cryin’ and pitchin’ a fit
Get over it, get over it

You say you haven’t been the same since you had your little crash
But you might feel better if I gave you some cash
The more I think about it, old billy was right
Let’s kill all the lawyers, kill ’em tonight
You don’t want to work, you want to live like a king
But the big, bad world doesn’t owe you a thing

Get over it
Get over it
If you don’t want to play, then you might as well split
Get over it, get over it

It’s like going to confession every time I hear you speak
You’re makin’ the most of your losin’ streak
Some call it sick, but I call it weak

You drag it around like a ball and chain
You wallow in the guilt; you wallow in the pain
You wave it like a flag, you wear it like a crown
Got your mind in the gutter, bringin’ everybody down
Complain about the present and blame it on the past
I’d like to find your inner child and kick it’s little ass

Get over it
Get over it
All this bitchin’ and moanin’ and pitchin’ a fit
Get over it, get over it

Get over it
Get over it
It’s gotta stop sometime, so why don’t you quit
Get over it, get over it

Lighten up Allen.

It's arguable the best magazine in the world.

Most of it's readers will vote for Obama.

The poliiical satire and cartoons go with the territory
The people who read the Magazine relate to it.
"fanned the flames of misinformation" the only people it will do that with already hate Obama.
You know that as well as I do.

More important the issue has a good article ( I'm told)
on Obama's career to date.

Thats what we should be talking about.

My issue should arrive soon..