Today's big news is that the latest The New Yorker features a cover of Obama in the Oval Office wearing a turban and giving Michelle Obama -- who's dressed as a black nationalist -- a terrorist fist jab. Meanwhile, a portrait of Osama bin-Laden gazes benevolently down from atop the mantle and an American flag roasts in the fireplace. Folks are outraged.But I can't seem to summon any outrage about it. Maybe if the the New Yorker had adeptly photoshopped an image such that it actually looked like Obama was in a turban, I'd think it more risible. But this is a cartoon. The very medium mocks and dismisses the content of the picture. Anyone who didn't get the joke would be left looking at a caricatured illustration, not a believable image of Obama gripping bin-Laden's portrait. What's actually happening, I think, is that the New Yorker is a physical institution that can be criticized, while the e-mail forwards and talk radio whispers actually fueling these rumors -- in their believable, not their cartoon, forms -- won't stand still long enough to be subject to public opprobrium. THAT NEW YORKER COVER.
Today's big news is that the latest The New Yorker features a cover of Obama in the Oval Office wearing a turban and giving Michelle Obama -- who's dressed as a black nationalist -- a terrorist fist jab. Meanwhile, a portrait of Osama bin-Laden gazes benevolently down from atop the mantle and an American flag roasts in the fireplace. Folks are outraged.But I can't seem to summon any outrage about it. Maybe if the the New Yorker had adeptly photoshopped an image such that it actually looked like Obama was in a turban, I'd think it more risible. But this is a cartoon. The very medium mocks and dismisses the content of the picture. Anyone who didn't get the joke would be left looking at a caricatured illustration, not a believable image of Obama gripping bin-Laden's portrait. What's actually happening, I think, is that the New Yorker is a physical institution that can be criticized, while the e-mail forwards and talk radio whispers actually fueling these rumors -- in their believable, not their cartoon, forms -- won't stand still long enough to be subject to public opprobrium. 
