My Conversation with David Remnick about the New Yorker's Obama Cover

I talked to David Remnick, editor of the New Yorker, about the magazine's controversial cover depicting Senator Barack Obama as a Muslim and Michelle Obama as a gun-toting revolutionary. Here is a part of that conversation:

Comments

[Tags]

You can't expect everybody to agree about a comment on a political issue. Everybody brings a different-colored paintbrush representing their own pet viewpoint and the discussion eventually looks like a masterpiece of Pollock partisanship.

But only long after the battle (in this case, election) is over.

The New Yorker should be commended for sticking to its guns and allowing the MSM to thrash about and draw attention to the point they intended to make.

[nk007]

oldleftist

I know you meant your list as a critique of Obama, but what exactly did it have to do with the New Yorker cartoons of the Obama's that was the subject of the post? By the way cleverly distorting some of Obama's positions without is not only not funny, but it is also vicious.

[dora rice]

Of course I will subscribe to the New Yorker. Not because Obama is on the front cover, because I remember the New Yorker from decades ago, how much I enjoyed their satires, caricatures and their humor. Also the interesting places they describe, and interesting articles in general. The New Yorker made it in to the 21st century over night. Good Job. Whether right or wrong, what' s wrong with putting on paper what Millions are thinking.

[Superfelo]

"i believe with all my heart that bush and his administration and fox news and limbaugh are traitors to our country and our planet and to life itself. but the cover is not an insult to obama. it's an insult to the TRUE evildoers.­...." It would be so if it was true what H.L. Mencken said: " you cannot go broke undersestimating the intelligen­ce........­"
A really satiric, and supportive cover, (and profound statement)would have been an illustration of Barack Obama standing proudly in front of the White House on Pennsylvania Avenue, looking mightily presidential,
and Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, Bill(We'll do it live!)O'Reilly, Fox 5, the present administration, and all the spawned garbage and rumors regarding Obama and his wife, floating in the fetid waters of Katrina. Now that would have been ennobling satire and funny. To me it comes across as unconscious racism; but see just because you work at the New Yorker does not mean you are that smart. As for those who read the "New Yorker" besides, beyond the "Talk of the Town" people only read the cartoons. Enough said.

[BarryChamplain]

Know what the real offense is, concerning this New Yorker cover brouhaha?

It's all you members of the Peanut Gallery, presuming to tell an artist what "would have been funnier". Virtually every critic on the side of Obama has not merely said, "This cover offends me" (admittedly, their right). It's always "Here's what would have been funnier...­"

Listen, you guys, if you're so g.d. creative, quit your stinking jobs and go pursue a career in the creative arts yourselves!

Being deaf to the art of lampooning or irony-challenged is one thing. GET offended at the cover! Who CARES? You know what opinions are like.

But please... just stop being Bucky Keyboard, Amateur Comedy Writer! I'd bet you ten bucks that 20 minutes and four beers with you, and you still couldn't get a chuckle out of me, with your own razor-sharp wit. Kindly stop playing critic to Barry Blitt. YOU'RE NOT QUALIFIED TO DO THAT. Thank you.

[JohnTalbutt]

Not really concerned with Blitt he seems kinda stupid. But the editors know what they are doing and to whom they are appealing. You have to have racism in you not to flinch at this cartoon

[applehead]

maybe i'm hipper than the outraged media because i grew up on mad magazine and know a good bit of satire when i see it. the new yorker was making fun of fox news and conservatives who make up and spread and pretend to believe lies like obama is a muslim. it is a very funny cover. and i love obama and believe with all my heart he will help to heal this dying world. i believe with all my heart that bush and his administration and fox news and limbaugh are traitors to our country and our planet and to life itself. but the cover is not an insult to obama. it's an insult to the TRUE evildoers

[TAC]

Agree totally, applehead. Good satire is way over the head of probably eighty percent of Americans. The New Yorker is not aimed at them and the media uproar is just to stir the pot and make this mismatch closer for their own greed and get the incompetent elected to please their owners...

[oldleftist]

guns are a civil right
capital punishment for non capital crimes is progressive
private campaign financing is public financing
FISA protects our liberties
timetables for withdrawal are reactionary
voluntary healthcare is universal healthcare
"Sweety" is a term of respect
Sam Nunn is our kinda guy

[RButler]

You did it much better than the The Yorker cover.
The cover cartoon upset the Obama supporters who think they get it but fear than the uneducated won't get it. See, they know what other people think. But, if they really got it they wouldn't be upset would they?
Lastly, this cartoon really illustrated the preteniousness of the New Yorker.