The Stranger Remixes Palin's Gunsight 'Surveyor's Marks' Map

To borrow a phrase from the folks over at Rumproast, The Stranger has decided they will "go there." In a "sneak preview" of the cover of their pending issue, the Seattle alt-weekly has remixed Sarah Palin's famous "crosshairs" map into an image depicting the locations of various infamous political assassination attempts, including the recent attempt on the life of Arizona Rep. Gabrielle Giffords.

This weekend's tragedy brought renewed attention to Palin's map, which was controversial enough at the time of its release that it concerned Giffords herself, who was marked on it. In the wake of the backlash, Team Palin responded by asserting that the crosshairs were "surveyor's marks," which no doubt inspired thousands of people to Google what "surveyor's marks" were, for the first time in their lives.

Here's the Stranger cover.

One cannot argue that it's a partisan piece of agitprop, seeing as it includes victims and would-be targets of assassinations from across the political spectrum, John F. Kennedy and Ronald Reagan alike. As one commenter notes, "That has got to be the first time ever that George Wallace and Harvey Milk have been on any sort of list together." Overall, it reinforces the fact that such violence, and the trauma it causes the nation, cuts across ideological lines indiscriminately. The recontextualizing of Palin's map underscores just how inured we've become to violent imagery.

Among urban alt-weeklies, The Stranger has a certain degree of national prominence, owing to the fact that its current editorial director and former editor-in-chief is the well-known "Savage Love" columnist and LGBT activist Dan Savage. Savage collaborated on this cover design with art director Aaron Huffman.

This isn't the first time a Stranger cover flirted with virality. In 2004, Savage and then-art director Corianton Hale created this "Do Not Despair" cover in response to John Kerry's defeat at the polls. That issue became a collector's item.

Ironically, The Stranger has also courted the same controversy that's being heaped onto Palin now. On the Halloween prior to the 2008 election, the paper published an article entitled, "Hell Houses: Topography Of Terror," that published images and addresses of area homes displaying the yard signs of Republican candidates. The article elicited a strong negative response from readers who felt the content incited voter intimidation, and the addresses were subsequently redacted in the online edition of the article.

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Comments

[PosiVista]

02:23 PM on 01/18/2011

Sarah called them "bullseyes" and now "cross hairs", but more is telegraphed.

They resemble rifle cross hairs, but true cross hairs do not extend beyond the circle representing the scope lens. Guess what does?
The hyper white supremacist "Celtic Cross" Stormfront logo:

http://www.stormfront.org/images/header_p1-uc.jpg

They are dog whistles to the racists.

[hannahsophie]

03:52 PM on 01/13/2011

Hopefully, the Stranger will add Huey Long to the map. He was assinated in the State Capitol building in Baton Rouge, Louisiana.

[Charles Richard Brown]

11:03 AM on 01/13/2011

10 names selected because they were Presidents or candidates for President...
2 civil rights leaders (perhaps government related assassins)
Moscone /Milk shot by a disgruntled civic employee
1 Doctor murdered by a "pro-life" activist (how ironic)
and Gabriel Giffords...

What a purposely meaningless list of names. How about the victims at Ruby Ridge? Waco?
How about Lee Harvey Oswald?
Elizabeth Borden's parents?
All of the children who were victims of their parents?
How about the victims of anti civil rights in the south?
How about Oklahoma City victims?
How about the Atlantic Olympic bomb victims or Unibomber victims or Ted Bundy's victims... ???

[OneSlackMartian]

08:45 PM on 01/12/2011

Lee Harvey Oswald is still our most infamous surveyor.

[J242]

10:28 PM on 01/12/2011

What does JFK's assassin have to do with anything?

[huffingmad]

10:50 AM on 01/14/2011

The same thing that all of the others listed have to do with anything.

[chloe4455]

07:59 PM on 01/12/2011

The white supremacist group , Stormfront, uses a cross-hair as their official symbol. Stormfront is a group out of Arizona.

[huffingmad]

10:51 AM on 01/14/2011

.. and I bet they don't consider them surveyor marks.

[J242]

05:21 PM on 01/12/2011

Glad to see some light being shed on the topical relevance of The Stranger. Our city's leading "alt" paper has been reporting with brutal honesty for years and years well before I ever moved to the Emerald City and I only wish other cities and news outlets would learn from their example. Yes, it's opinionated, yes, it's harsh and often contains offensive language but just like life itself, it's not intended to be a sanitized, "safe" paper. Good for Dan & everyone at The Stranger, here's to them keeping it up for many years to come!

[Cleverboots]

06:14 PM on 01/12/2011

Reply to your comment to me:I have read the Polifact list and they are right as far as they go. What I am referring to his overall claim of "change we can believe in." His Administration still caters to big business and corporate lobbyists so it is still "business as usual" in Washington.
Thanks for your response.F&F

[J242]

06:29 PM on 01/12/2011

Unfortunately, any WH cabinet has to cater to the lobbyists and BB to some extent. I'd say he's limited their reach fairly significantly regarding limiting lobbyist access to politicians, forcing politicians to disclose any "gifts", vacations, money received, etc from lobbyists and more. I would hope for a lot more, but it still remains that he has done more than any other sitting president in the past 30 years regarding this.

Glad that we can reply back and forth in a civil manner regardless of agreement or disagreement. :) F&F'd in return!

[mkhpalm]

02:48 PM on 01/12/2011

The interesting thing is Huffington Post isn't reporting on ABC new's interview with Jared's best friend saying "Zeitgeist" influenced him and he wasn't left OR right. He didn't watch tv or the news and he didn't listen to talk radio. But never miss a chance to capitalize on somebody else's tragedy. Am I right HuffPo writers?

[atretrioeciii]

04:14 PM on 01/12/2011

I see this whole affair is only going to make everything worse.

You got Rush saying dems. are supporting that nut, Palin is making her usual word salad, and now you decide to logon just assume facts and insult people.

Look again at that long statement of Palins, you would think she was the one who has had it the hardest.

You too involved to realise you are doing exactly what you accuse others of doing.

[Harbinger08]

06:05 PM on 01/12/2011

Only in the Tea Drinker's universe is asking people to tone down the level of aggression in their rhetoric is viewed as an attack.

[J242]

06:30 PM on 01/12/2011

That's because they also drink the kool-aid.

[bluguy8]

02:06 PM on 01/12/2011

brilliant

[Wild Turkey]

02:04 PM on 01/12/2011

Reaction Formation

In psychoanalytic theory, reaction formation is a defensive process (defense mechanism) in which anxiety-producing or unacceptable emotions and impulses are mastered by exaggeration (hyperbole) of the directly opposing tendency.

[jdrourke]

01:52 PM on 01/12/2011

Brilliant! Upsetting and very sad and telling, but brilliant!

http://jdrourke.wordpress.com/2011/01/08/dear-2nd-amendment/

[Cleverboots]

12:52 PM on 01/12/2011

Certainly makes one think about where this country has been and where we are going. Scary,I think.

[llfutrell]

01:15 PM on 01/12/2011

This is where it's been.......

http://www.dlc.org/ndol_ci.cfm?contentid=253055&kaid=127&subid=171

and today is where it's gotten us.

[reece2076]

01:32 PM on 01/12/2011

Putting bulls eyes on an entire state that should be targeted for the next election, is not the same as singling out a politician with crosshairs.

[prettyfnliberal]

02:09 PM on 01/12/2011

WATCH OUT DEMS MIGHT THROW DARTS AT YOU

[bluguy8]

02:06 PM on 01/12/2011

where we're going isn't a good place for sure

[Cleverboots]

02:30 PM on 01/12/2011

No,it's notso we jut have to pay attention to what's going on.Thanks for your response. F&F

[atretrioeciii]

04:03 PM on 01/12/2011

Sorry getting out of the next great depression is taking so long.

We would welcome all of your miracle ideas, but as of yet all people like you have to offer is whining about how hard times are.

Conservatives are constantly looking for the easy out of something.

[John1255]

12:47 PM on 01/12/2011

where's the review of the democratic bulls eye map used in 2004? same metaphor, different party. seems you are being selective in your analysis. where's the discussion of the Obama statement about bringing a gun to a knife fight? I have no problems with any of them. they are political metaphors. no one is calling for violence. jeez.

[hazbro24]

12:59 PM on 01/12/2011

Yeah, but everybody knows that us wimpy libs don't have guns and would never have the "manning up" to act on that.

Or it could be us libs are smart enough to understand metaphors and don't operate on the primal portion of our brains.

[llfutrell]

01:11 PM on 01/12/2011

Take a good look at the Dems "Behind ENEMY Lines" map with Bullsey targets.

http://www.dlc.org/ndol_ci.cfm?contentid=253055&kaid=127&subid=171

"libs are smart enough to understand metaphors and don't operate on the primal portion of our brains"....are you trying to convince us that there are no liberal felons? Do you really think our prisons are full of republicans only? How about all those inner city gansters...are they tea party supporters too?

[SageFire]

03:53 PM on 01/12/2011

Yes indeed, many of us libs do have them and do know exactly how to use them because we were raised in conservative households and/or homes who needed to hunt to eat. We have just actively made a different choice as adults. In my case, a skilled sharpshooter by literally early grade school, I grew up and decided that becoming a martial artist was a much, much better choice for personal safety. I feel very safe in the world now because that training and I no longer feel I need to own any firearems. AND I am not going to accidentaly take out grandma because she dropped something in the kitchen late at night while trying to make a sandwich.

[whirlybird]

01:14 PM on 01/12/2011

Libs don't use their 2nd amendment rights to show up at political events toting arms. That's not a metaphor, pal. It's the real deal. Cowardly, too.

[John1255]

02:39 PM on 01/12/2011

now that's just silly. your insinuations are opportunistic. you should be ashamed of yourself.

[VeritasVincit2]

03:06 PM on 01/12/2011

Yes look where your second amendment rs got the Congresswoman

[Brothaman2k]

12:14 PM on 01/12/2011

Whoop, there it is.

[OmegaZ]

12:14 PM on 01/12/2011

Some might say this is in poor taste. Personally, I think it's a great way to roll back the veil and expose the truth. With Limbag saying the Democrats are behind the shooter, Palin doing her 'look over here' thing and even Sharon Angle getting in on the act, I'm glad to see The Stranger telling it like it is.

I actually believe that the rethugs really didn't intend for anyone to be literally shot, but it comes as no surprise to me that they continue to fail to understand how the words they say and the imagery they use affects people. Palin and others like her that use extreme rhetoric (such as Joe Wilson, who's YouLie moment is now being branded onto gun barrels) do bear some measure of responsibility--not that they'll ever admit it.

[whirlybird]

01:12 PM on 01/12/2011

Lord, help us. There's so very, very much the Repubs fail to understand.

[llfutrell]

01:14 PM on 01/12/2011

Kind of like the lefts very own words? Take a good look for yourself.


http://www.dlc.org/ndol_ci.cfm?contentid=253055&kaid=127&subid=171

[jimme]

01:32 PM on 01/12/2011

Is this the ol' "I know you are, but what am I" game?

[LCDTV]

08:16 AM on 01/13/2011

2004? do you remember this map from 2004? were there any names mentioned on the map? was anybody shot? did the rethugs complain in 2004? talk about a stretch. keep searching. next.