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filthy
SFN Die Hard
USA
14408 Posts |
 Posted - 07/14/2008 : 07:05:30
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In spite of excellent content and being known for up-scale humor, this attempt at satire is raising some hackles. I find it little odd that they'd try it and really, equally odd that it isn't being taken for what it is.
Guys, you should'a known better. Now you gotta fire an editor and put his head on a figuritive (one hopes) pike...
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"What luck for rulers that men do not think." -- Adolf Hitler (1889 - 1945)
"If only we could impeach on the basis of criminal stupidity, 90% of the Rethuglicans and half of the Democrats would be thrown out of office." ~~ P.Z. Myres
"The default position of human nature is to punch the other guy in the face and take his stuff." ~~ Dude
Brother Boot Knife of Warm Humanitarianism,
and Crypto-Communist! 
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Edited by - filthy on 07/14/2008 07:07:10
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Kil
Evil Skeptic
USA
13477 Posts |
Posted - 07/14/2008 : 08:18:45 [Permalink]
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| Wow! Now there is an oopsy. I'm sure the intentions were good, but the delivery is horrible. What the hell were they thinking? |
Uncertainty may make you uncomfortable. Certainty makes you ridiculous.
Why not question something for a change?
Genetic Literacy Project |
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filthy
SFN Die Hard
USA
14408 Posts |
 Posted - 07/14/2008 : 08:36:13 [Permalink]
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Originally posted by Kil
Wow! Now there is an oopsy. I'm sure the intentions were good, but the delivery is horrible. What the hell were they thinking?
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I dunno.... About the pecker they just stepped on, maybe?
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"What luck for rulers that men do not think." -- Adolf Hitler (1889 - 1945)
"If only we could impeach on the basis of criminal stupidity, 90% of the Rethuglicans and half of the Democrats would be thrown out of office." ~~ P.Z. Myres
"The default position of human nature is to punch the other guy in the face and take his stuff." ~~ Dude
Brother Boot Knife of Warm Humanitarianism,
and Crypto-Communist!
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Dude
SFN Die Hard
USA
6891 Posts |
Posted - 07/14/2008 : 08:54:33 [Permalink]
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Bad form, at the least. They miss the target audience by a mile.
Better would have been Obama and his wife doing the dap (fist bump), and a caricature of some right-wing-nut in the background raving and drooling about a "terrorist fist jab".
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Ignorance is preferable to error; and he is less remote from the truth who believes nothing, than he who believes what is wrong.
-- Thomas Jefferson
"god :: the last refuge of a man with no answers and no argument." - G. Carlin
Hope, n.
The handmaiden of desperation; the opiate of despair; the illegible signpost on the road to perdition. ~~ da filth |
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bngbuck
SFN Addict
USA
2437 Posts |
Posted - 07/14/2008 : 14:07:53 [Permalink]
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Filthy.....
Sorry to have been absent for a few weeks. I've had some plumbing problems.....
This Obama satire is one of the most astonishing lapses in editorial judgement on the part of the New Yorker's editorial board that I have ever seen. I have been an avid subscriber and reader of the magazine since the mid forties. I first subscribed when I was in graduate school and I have continuously received the NY'er ever since, well over fifty years.
The legendary Harold Ross originally intended the periodical to be primarily a humor magazine and it succeeded brilliantly, but it quickly developed into a significant literary journal with frequent Pulitzer contributors and generally excellent journalistic content. William Shawn, a prototypical intellectual, took over in the early fifties after Ross died and steered the publication to world-wide fame and respect for consistent excellence in content.
The magazine has always been oriented to the intellectual. social, and educational elite of the eastern seaboard, obviously centering in New York City, but it has world-wide distribution and is generally highly regarded as one of the premier American periodicals.
Apparently the current editorial board has an ivory-tower mentality which is either unaware of or uncaring for the wide spectrum of intellectual sophistication of the American electorate.
Satire is seldom grasped by folks of limited education, experience, sophistication and intellect. Certainly, few voters that fall in the above categories would normally be exposed to the New Yorker, fewer yet would know or care that such a publication existed.
However, the massive media publicity that this faux pas has generated, and that will continue through the current news cycle, will expose uncounted millions of less-than-sophisticated voters to what is actually the precise message that hate-mongers like Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity and Bill O'Reilly are furiously working to convey to the largely ignorant masses that "ditto" every defamation of Obama that these muck-fakers generate daily.
Most of this audience consist of committed Republican ignoramuses and their votes are totally predecided anyway, so no harm to Obama here.
But there is a large segment of the electorate that will remain undecided until the final weeks of the campaign in September and October. I am sure that many of these folks live somewhere on the initial ascent of the bell curve of political sophistication (and other cognitive indices), and will be inclined to take this currently ubiquitous cartoon image to be a literal representation of the Obamas as Arab terrorists. Some will respond either consciously or subliminally to this suggestion when they go into the voting booth next November.
I personally think this is about the stupidest political statement that this gloriously liberal magazine has ever made, that they should be roundly condemned for it, and they damn well better make some kind of apology to their overwhelmingly liberal, left-wing politically oriented constituency. I have already written them a stinging letter, which I hope they publish in "The Mail", the Letters to the Editor section.
I would be very interested in commentary from any other readers here that are familiar with the New Yorker. I am deeply disappointed in the elitest attitude expressed by associate editor Hendrick Hertzberg and that is suggested by this cartoon - that their satire is understood by their select group of readers, and to hell with those that don't know it is satire! They have done Obama a great disservice, and probably some political damage!
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Chippewa
SFN Regular
USA
1496 Posts |
Posted - 07/14/2008 : 15:33:26 [Permalink]
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Originally posted by bngbuck
...I am deeply disappointed in the elitest attitude expressed by associate editor Hendrick Hertzberg and that is suggested by this cartoon - that their satire is understood by their select group of readers, and to hell with those that don't know it is satire! They have done Obama a great disservice, and probably some political damage! |
The New Yorker here also seems oblivious to the effect of "framing" which can be illustrated like this:
Ignoramus: "Obama is a Muslim." (As in "terrorist".)
Smarty: "Obama is not a Muslim." (As in "not a Muslim".)
The result is "Obama" being associated (framed) with "Muslim" twice, a favored Republican framing technique.
Better to counter with:
Ignoramus: "Obama is a Muslim."
Super Smarty: "Obama is a Christian."
Since Obama actually is a Christian, the new information counters the ignorant notion for anyone looking it up.
The New Yorker's cover reinforces ignorant, negative lies about Obama all at once. The rightwing bloggers and radio goofs will likely agree that "its just satire" (while privately smiling.) Some of them will even agree that its all untrue. But I wonder what their reaction would be if the New Yorker ran a cartoon cover of young John McCain pointing out fellow prisoners to North Vietnamese guards for extra cigarettes? Just as untrue but still "satire" - right? |
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Dude
SFN Die Hard
USA
6891 Posts |
Posted - 07/14/2008 : 20:10:00 [Permalink]
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bng... though you had gone and bought the farm! Glad you're back in action.
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Ignorance is preferable to error; and he is less remote from the truth who believes nothing, than he who believes what is wrong.
-- Thomas Jefferson
"god :: the last refuge of a man with no answers and no argument." - G. Carlin
Hope, n.
The handmaiden of desperation; the opiate of despair; the illegible signpost on the road to perdition. ~~ da filth |
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HalfMooner
Dingaling
Philippines
15831 Posts |
Posted - 07/15/2008 : 00:14:42 [Permalink]
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Welcome back, bngbuck! May your plumbing continue both hermetically sealed and free-flowing.
I think the New Yorker has demonstrated that Poe's Law applies to more than right-wing fundies. An incredible blunder by that magazine, and a smear and injustice to Obama.
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“Biology is just physics that has begun to smell bad.” —HalfMooner
Here's a link to Moonscape News, and one to its Archive. |
| Edited by - HalfMooner on 07/15/2008 00:17:51 |
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filthy
SFN Die Hard
USA
14408 Posts |
Posted - 07/15/2008 : 03:42:09 [Permalink]
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I too, was beginning to wonder. Welcome back, O ancient one!
I've never read a lot of the New Yorker but what I have I thought excellent. The sad thing here is that this really is superb satire; just, how do I put it...... poorly timed. T'would have been much better after Obama won the election (assuming, of course).
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"What luck for rulers that men do not think." -- Adolf Hitler (1889 - 1945)
"If only we could impeach on the basis of criminal stupidity, 90% of the Rethuglicans and half of the Democrats would be thrown out of office." ~~ P.Z. Myres
"The default position of human nature is to punch the other guy in the face and take his stuff." ~~ Dude
Brother Boot Knife of Warm Humanitarianism,
and Crypto-Communist!
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filthy
SFN Die Hard
USA
14408 Posts |
 Posted - 07/15/2008 : 11:51:08 [Permalink]
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On a related matter:
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"What luck for rulers that men do not think." -- Adolf Hitler (1889 - 1945)
"If only we could impeach on the basis of criminal stupidity, 90% of the Rethuglicans and half of the Democrats would be thrown out of office." ~~ P.Z. Myres
"The default position of human nature is to punch the other guy in the face and take his stuff." ~~ Dude
Brother Boot Knife of Warm Humanitarianism,
and Crypto-Communist!
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bngbuck
SFN Addict
USA
2437 Posts |
Posted - 07/15/2008 : 11:53:36 [Permalink]
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Chippewa.....
I think your point about "framing" is well taken, and it is particularly galling to witness the editors of this illustrious magazine entirely miss that point as well as totally misunderstand the "common man" in America. Because Joe six-pack doesn't read their magazine, they appear not to give a sanctimonious shit about millions of everyday Joes seeing the satirical cartoon, missing the satire, taking it literally, having doubts planted by the Republican smear machine reinforced, and ending up believing that Obama may have ties to radical Muslim terrorists.
The literal concept of "framing" is exemplified by a framed picture/cartoon - a box of information that has enormous power to persuade - witness the work of political cartoonist Thomas Nast
in dethroning Tammany Hall's Boss Tweed in the late 1870's. The pen, be it literary or artistic, can indeed be mightier than the sword.
I am enormously disappointed in the New Yorker, in that the sophistication of their editorial judgment is inferior to the quality of their printed product. I would expect more common or "steet" sense from them than to commit this blunder!
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bngbuck
SFN Addict
USA
2437 Posts |
Posted - 07/15/2008 : 12:17:44 [Permalink]
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Dude, Mooner, and Filthy.....
Thanks for the kind concern for my infrastructure. The Roto-rooter people will be gratified that their work has been appreciated! |
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filthy
SFN Die Hard
USA
14408 Posts |
Posted - 07/15/2008 : 12:43:15 [Permalink]
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Satire is a touchy art at best. It is not possible to do it so that it works for everyone, nor should it be. While the intellectually inclined might find the cartoon representative of the utter bullshit that has been futilly thrown at Obama, the lesser read might not. And those who walk on their knuckles, and the conservative Republicans (pretty much the same, fucking thing) will see, and loudly tout, it as support of every bald-faced lie told about Obama from his religious beliefs to his patriotism.
This campaign is going to get really nasty and the New Yorker ain't helpin' matters none.
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"What luck for rulers that men do not think." -- Adolf Hitler (1889 - 1945)
"If only we could impeach on the basis of criminal stupidity, 90% of the Rethuglicans and half of the Democrats would be thrown out of office." ~~ P.Z. Myres
"The default position of human nature is to punch the other guy in the face and take his stuff." ~~ Dude
Brother Boot Knife of Warm Humanitarianism,
and Crypto-Communist!
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filthy
SFN Die Hard
USA
14408 Posts |
Posted - 07/15/2008 : 13:52:27 [Permalink]
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A voice of reason: For the past 24 hours, the hot topic in presidential politics hasn't been Iraq, or immigration, or even John McCain's "Googilliteracy." It's been the cartoon on the cover of this week's New Yorker magazine. Called "The Politics of Fear," the drawing by Barry Blitt depicts Barack Obama in the Oval Office, swaddled in the robe and turban of an alleged Islamist radical and "terrorist fist-jabbing" his Afro-wearing, AK-47-toting black radical wife Michelle as Osama bin Laden glares from a framed portrait on the wall and an American flag roasts in the fireplace. At this point, so much ink has been spilled over the cartoon that the commentary has almost surpassed, in terms of length, the article it was originally meant to accompany: Ryan Lizza's 15,000-word report on Obama's Chicago years. (I said almost.)
It's a shame they didn't just laugh it off.
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"What luck for rulers that men do not think." -- Adolf Hitler (1889 - 1945)
"If only we could impeach on the basis of criminal stupidity, 90% of the Rethuglicans and half of the Democrats would be thrown out of office." ~~ P.Z. Myres
"The default position of human nature is to punch the other guy in the face and take his stuff." ~~ Dude
Brother Boot Knife of Warm Humanitarianism,
and Crypto-Communist!
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filthy
SFN Die Hard
USA
14408 Posts |
Posted - 07/15/2008 : 15:29:30 [Permalink]
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Annnd here we go! One of Nixon's cheap thugs checks in on it: On the July 14 broadcast of his nationally syndicated radio show, G. Gordon Liddy said of the image of Sen. Barack Obama and his wife, Michelle, on the July 21 cover of The New Yorker: "It's got Obama in his Muslim dress with a turban, and he's there with his wife. His wife has a 'mad at the world' afro, circa 1968, she -- she's got bandoliers and an assault weapon, and there in their fireplace is burning the American flag. The New Yorker finally got it right."
The New Yorker said in a press release that its cover "satirizes the use of scare tactics and misinformation in the Presidential election to derail Barack Obama's campaign."
From the July 14 broadcast of Radio America's The G. Gordon Liddy Show:
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Once a sneak thief, now a lying demagogue a'la Limbaugh. The fool really doesn't have much to recommend him, does he?
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"What luck for rulers that men do not think." -- Adolf Hitler (1889 - 1945)
"If only we could impeach on the basis of criminal stupidity, 90% of the Rethuglicans and half of the Democrats would be thrown out of office." ~~ P.Z. Myres
"The default position of human nature is to punch the other guy in the face and take his stuff." ~~ Dude
Brother Boot Knife of Warm Humanitarianism,
and Crypto-Communist!
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The New Yorker steps on it's pecker!
