Monday, July 14, 2008
TIRED SATIRE
I suppose that I have to comment on this even if I would rather not.
The left wing blog world is not very happy with The New Yorker today because of the satirical cover entitled "The Politics of Hate" in which the Obamas are pictured with every nasty right wing rumor and innuendo that has been said about them.
Some people think that this is wounding with friendly fire.
I think their desire was to defuse all the shit that is flying around by piling it all up in one place. A sort of exposure to the air.
I am not sure of the effect they wanted but I don't think they got the response they expected.
General condemnation seems to be the norm.
I, myself, don't take it all that badly.
I am one who thinks that you air the shit to get it out there and over.
I sort of like the message but not the medium.
George S. Kaufman said that 'satire is what closes on Saturday night'.
It has limited reach and appeal.
I am not too sure that the general public will take the message here.
But then I have long underestimated the intelligence of the American public.
Perhaps The New Yorker editors are right. Perhaps this will be curative.
Time will tell. In the meantime, there will be a furor over it and then the furor will die and we will move on to the next outrage.
The question is whether the Obama campaign can continue their progress without spending time on this.
My guess is that they can and that they will.
He is about to take the world tour.
He will get a lot of positive press. That press will undercut many of the niggling ignorant canards about him. Little by little.
There is some argument that the magazine has never done this to other politicians. Wrong.
The January 27 2007 cover showed Bush as Nero fiddling while flames are bursting behind him. On October 29, Dick Cheney was a nasty jack-o-lantern. And in that year alone, I count at least 15 'in your face' political covers. A disabled vet unable to get up the steps at Walter Reed. A bunch of paper airplanes and tanks made of IRS 1040 forms.
Nothing as 'offensive' as the Obama cover but certainly political and not nice.
I am sure that Dick Cheney isn't happy about his one week of New Yorker fame.
Labels: Barack Obama, politics
