New Yorker, Satire or Not?

[Teresa]

very good points there matt. thanks.

 

[Cil]

Good stuff, Matt.
If it were my call, I probably would not have run the cartoon as a cover, because I am just so freaked out about the possibility of Obama *not* winning.
I get a lot of that crud in my email inbox, as well. It's just scary to me how many nuts out there will probably look upon this cover, complete with "terrorist fist bump," as an accurate portrayal of the couple.
Then again, I suppose it is sort of an instant IQ test and the people who flunk it wouldn't vote for Obama anyway?

 

[JustaLocal]

They must only send those e-mails to registered democrats. I haven't gotten them. I guess there is no need to scare me away from voting for Obama, he's done that well enough himself.

I keep running across these rumors on this forum and in the news when they are being 'addressed.'

The Nigerian diplomat sent my former boss a hardcopy letter when I was working back in 1990 or so. I can't believe that nobody has helped him out yet!

 

[MattChrist Live]

They must only send those e-mails to registered democrats. I haven't gotten them. I guess there is no need to scare me away from voting for Obama, he's done that well enough himself.

I keep running across these rumors on this forum and in the news when they are being 'addressed.'

The Nigerian diplomat sent my former boss a hardcopy letter when I was working back in 1990 or so. I can't believe that nobody has helped him out yet!

I've always heard about the Nigerian diplomat email, but I never thought I would actually receive one-and then yesterday, Presto!

I responded back with a "you gotta be kidding me, right?" :rofl:

 

[Matt J]

I've always heard about the Nigerian diplomat email, but I never thought I would actually receive one-and then yesterday, Presto!

I responded back with a "you gotta be kidding me, right?" :rofl:

I always respond that I'll be happy to help I just need his routing/account numbers to send the money over. For some reason he lost interest after that. I think he doesn't really need the help all that much.

 

[traderx]

A Pew Research poll released today illustrates who believes Obama is a Muslim......interesting.

http://pewresearch.org/pubs/898/bel...-bipartisan-but-most-likely-to-sway-democrats

 

[Miss Critter]

As is often the case, Leonard Pitts hits the nail on the head, IMO. And, by the way, you nailed it too, Matt.

Satire takes a beating when truth is so ridiculous

BY LEONARD PITTS JR. ? McCLATCHY NEWSPAPERS ? July 19, 2008

"I have been assured by a very knowing American of my acquaintance in London, that a young healthy child well nursed is at a year old a most delicious, nourishing, and wholesome food, whether stewed, roasted, baked, or boiled..."

-- Jonathan Swift, "A Modest Proposal, 1729"

Satire is tricky.
It makes its point by exaggerating wildly with a straight face. In inflating a thing beyond all common sense or propriety, it seeks to render inconsistencies and hypocrisies glaringly apparent. Satire seeks truth in the ridiculous. For illustration, see any given episode of "The Colbert Report."

What makes satire difficult is that sometimes people don't realize they are being had. Jonathan Swift's "Modest Proposal," for instance, had some convinced he wanted to eat babies; they didn't realize he was actually attacking people's blithe unconcern with the plight of the poor. For that matter, when "All in the Family" came along 2 1/2 centuries later, some folks saw Archie as the soul of reason.

I have experience in this. Some years back, I satirized a study that said many Americans think news media routinely get the facts wrong. In a column "defending" media accuracy, I made misstatements so grandiose -- Bob Hope was host of the "Tonight Show"; Quincy Jones was his bandleader -- I thought no one could miss my point.

Silly me. I got hundreds of e-mails "correcting" my supposed errors.
So I feel the New Yorker's pain. The magazine is under fire for a cover illustration depicting Barack Obama in the Oval Office wearing a turban, bumping fists with his wife, Michelle, who wears an Afro and fatigues, and has an assault rifle slung over her shoulder. Osama bin Laden watches from a portrait on the wall. An American flag burns in the fireplace.

The Obama and McCain campaigns have pronounced the cover offensive. There have been calls for a boycott.

Me, I like the cover. It strikes me as an incisive comment on the fear-mongering that has attended Obama's run for the presidency. Still, I understand why it is incendiary: Some of us will take it seriously.
To be effective, satire needs a situation it can inflate into ridiculousness. But the hysteria surrounding Obama has nowhere to go; it is already ridiculous. In just the last few days, we've had Jesse Jackson threatening to castrate him and John McLaughlin calling him an "Oreo."

Add to that the whispers about Obama's supposed Muslim heritage (not that there's anything wrong with that), the "terrorist" implications of bumping fists, and Michelle Obama's purported use of the term "whitey" (a word no black person has uttered since "The Jeffersons" went off the air in 1985), and it's clear that "ridiculous" has become our default status. What once were punch lines now are headlines.

So, as absurd, as over the top, as utterly outlandish as the New Yorker image strikes the more sophisticated among us, there is a large fringe out there for whom it will represent nothing more or less than the sum of their fears.
Indeed, as I sat down to write these words, there beeped into my mailbox an e-mail with this subject line: "WOW, the New Yorker got it exactly right, for once." Said without a trace of irony.

But increasingly, that's who we are in this country: ignorant, irony-impaired and petrified. So maybe we should just cancel the campaign and ask that the last intelligent person turn off the lights when he or she leaves. And bring the last book with you. Nobody here will need it.

Somewhere between the stained blue dress and the vice president shooting a guy in the face, between swift boat lies and "war on terra" alibis, the absurd became the ordinary, facts became optional, and satire became superfluous.
We are beyond satire, my friends. These days, there's nothing more ridiculous than the truth.

LEONARD PITTS JR. is a columnist for the Miami Herald, 1 Herald Plaza, Miami, Fla. 33132. Write to him at lpitts@miamiherald.com.

 

[Pirate]

Lou Dobbs last night showed some past New Yorker covers, they have a long history of this. The "outrage" is due to the Obama factor. We're in uncharted territory with Barack running for president. The media just needs to calm down. I find it so fascinating to watch - we all talk about ignoring the color of a man?s skin when making judgment calls, this whole election has been one huge failure in accomplishing that. The media, Rev. Wright, all the pundits, CNN ("Black in America" series??? - OMG) Fox, the polling companies, they are all largely to blame. America is being spoon fed veiled racists propaganda in the form of polls, specials, etc.. "If it bleeds, it leads." I think we all started out ignoring it, then the media got involved and "made it" an issue.

The potential Obama voters need to pick up one of his books if they feel he is blind to color. He is a smooth talking half-black that is insulated from any media scrutiny by political corectness. Look at his ultra-liberal voting record and the racist tone throughout his books, these are the things that matter. The cover is in line with many other covers done by the magazine, it just scares his supporters that the stereotype skirts reality.

 

[tistheseason]

The cover is in line with many other covers done by the magazine, it just scares his supporters that the stereotype skirts reality.

While the first part of the statement above may be true, I don't subscribe (although I do own a beach house with someone who does, and I love it when he leaves the past issues down there for me to read! I love it when people leave People and US magazine, too -- so clearly I'm not picky!) But the second part of your statement couldn't be further from the truth. The thing that scares his supporters is the number of uninformed voters that believe the cartoon "skirts reality". I'm constantly amazed at educated, otherwise-with-it people who think that he is or was or has ties to being a muslim. UUUGGGGHHHHH!!

 

[MattChrist Live]

it just scares his supporters that the stereotype skirts reality.

That's satire, right?