WORLD NEWS TRUST: Can't Take a Joke (Mary Lyon)

[Tace]

"Outside of basic intelligence, there is nothing more important to a good political cartoonist than ill will." --Jules Pfeiffer

(World News Trust) -- Evidently there’s a lot of surprising ill will with the latest New Yorker magazine cover. That’s gotta be Barack Mohammed Obama there, right? (See! I KNEW his middle name was un-American!!!) There he stands in his mullah costume, a portrait of his “idol” Osama -- the guy whose name even Chris Matthews continues to mix up – hanging on the wall, above a fireplace where the flag is not only NOT being worn as a lapel pin, but is being burned for kindling. And look at Michelle Obama there in her combat fatiques and assault rifle -- like a latter day Angela Davis. The gesture between Mr. and Mrs. Obama? Total vindication for snarky Fox anchor-blonde E.D. Hill -- that must be the “terrorist…fist…jab ” she speculated about on the air. And look! There it all is, conveniently wrapped up in one neat package, on the cover of The New Yorker .

But maybe it’s not all that surprising. Unfortunately, not everyone gets the joke. Guaranteed -- there are people in this country who already have this kind of caricature epoxied onto their brains. Either they’re staunch, intellect-negating Limbaugh devotees or they swear by Fox News or they gobble up a continuing series of idiot emails shrieking all kinds of sinister-sounding, deceitful, unsubstantiated, utterly fictitious, and hideously paranoid nonsense. I’ve received a number of those emails from people smart enough and sufficiently well educated to know better. I’ve debunked a few, sometimes in great detail. It’s earned me more than a little hostility from some senders (and recipients) who now resent me as much as they do the dreaded Barack, or Hillary, or Bill, too, or liberals in general, because I dared to try to disabuse them of their cherished misconceptions.

I’m a graphic artist myself. I’ve drawn a few cartoons along the way, too, many of them satirical. I never used pen or pencil points sharp enough to draw blood, though. Beauty, humor, satire, and anti-Americanism are in the eye of the beholder, and for far too many, seeing stuff like this is all the believing they need. Without any prompting, my son, the student of politics and rock music, went immediately to -- “oh NO!” when he and a friend looked up the New Yorker cover on the internet. His friend responded with a worried gulp and a “wow, that’s really bad.” They’re smart kids. They’re pretty sophisticated. Ordinarily they get it. But this one stung. These are kids who pay attention and totally get Stephen Colbert. But they were stopped cold at The New Yorker.

If my favorite young people, and many of my friends are troubled by it, I can’t help but pay attention. I don’t want to be a Miss Priss and go ballistic just because the artist’s rendering isn’t pretty. Nor do I want to do anything to compromise the First Amendment. Heaven knows we have enough of our Constitution under assault already. Even the agonizingly curvy Jessica Rabbit once lamented that “I’m not bad. I’m just drawn that way.” But I’m also deeply torn by this, too.

more

http://www.worldnewstrust.com/wnt-reports/commentary/cant-take-a-joke.html?mosmsg=Thanks+for+your+submission.

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1. Kicking!

Don't know why this took me so long to write - stuck on the horns of a devil of a dilemma on this one. Oh well...

Thanks Tace!

:toast: :patriot: :hi:

[Tace]

2. I Can See Why You Had Some Second-Thoughts

Yet, I don't quite see what all the fuss is about. : )

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3. It's funny - EVERYONE I've talked to who's a progressive and a staunch defender

of free speech and just as staunchly against censorship has been gulping - HARD - over The New Yorker cover. They're as conflicted as I am, and to a man and woman, they all had the same initial reaction (the same one my son and his friend had): "Oh NO!" or "Oh God, we don't need this! They're NOT gonna get the joke."

[Tace]

7. I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it

The cover struck me as so goofy that I didn't take it seriously. Regarding The New Yorker cover, this comes to mind:

6. Bartleby.com (http://www.bartleby.com/66/40/63040.html) provides the following citation:

The Columbia World of Quotations. 1996.

NUMBER: 63040

QUOTATION: I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it.

ATTRIBUTION: Voltaire (1694–1778), French philosopher, author.

what you write, but I would give my life to make it possible for you to continue to write.”

Real name François Marie Arouet.

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8. I hate the cliche "I hope I'm wrong" because it's usually said disingenuously, but

I really do hope you're the correct one here. I've heard a whole lot of other strong defenses for The New Yorker cover, here and elsewhere, and they all make sense. I hope I'm wrong. I hope I'm being too tight-sphincter'ed. But it was my first reaction, and either the first or the most prevailing reaction of anyone I know. I guess that speaks pretty poorly about cynicism here (mine, mainly). Here, as I regard what are referred to as "low-information voters" who let limbaugh and the like do their thinking for them - how will THEY react? And never mind that they probably don't read The New Yorker in the first place and never would, and never have. Maybe it isn't even carried where they shop. But they sure has hell have seen the cover - because of the news coverage. And they'll form an opinion based on what they see. Much, if not most, of America is visually-oriented. For those already negatively predisposed toward Obama, this will only confirm everything they (mistakenly) believe. I'm afraid that, reviewing the track record of voting by such voters, I don't have much confidence. After all, enough of 'em swallowed george w. bush - twice, not to mention everyone who voted for reagan and bush 1. More than a few lost souls there, I'm afraid.

And I wish there were no need for me with my cynical suspicious mind even to go there!!!! I seriously hope you're correct and I'm wrong.

[Tace]

9. I Don't Disagree With You

Mary, I was only trying to give my initial response to the New Yorker controversy, which was sort of "What's the big deal?"

However, after reading the responses of other folks, I think a lot of people -- especially those in the Obama campaign -- have a lot of valid criticism of the cover.

BTW, one of the first things to cross my mind when I saw the cover was the irony that i don't see Obama as an Arab leftist radical, but rather an American centrist progressive, so the depiction differed from how I actually see Obama.

I dunno'. I'm not trying to offend anyone by not being offended.

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10. I don't see how you could offend anybody in any case!

It was my first reaction. Which is why I held back about it. I thought I better take the proverbial deep breath and think it over.

Hell, who knows WHAT the correct answer is on this one?

:shrug: :pals: :patriot: :headbang:

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4. Kickez-vous.

:D

[bemildred]

5. OK.

I think she is too nice about it, but OK.

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6. Nice, and plenty conflicted, I'll tell ya...

Thanks for the kick! :hi: