VF Spoof Bumps New Yorker

It supported a lunatic idea, without slamming an established one

(NEWSER) - The now-infamous New Yorker cover depicting Barack and Michelle Obama as Muslim extremists rankled readers because it is not satire, Lee Siegel argues in the New York Times. Satire tackles "social rottenness once it has become a visible and established part of life," writes Siegel. But the New Yorker gave mainstream credence to a notion of the lunatic fringe. More»

Stewart and Colbert recreate the controversial cartoon for EW cover

(NEWSER) - Taking their spoofing of TV into print, Stephen Colbert and Jon Stewart grace the cover of this week’s Entertainment Weekly in imitation of the Obamas-as-terrorists New Yorker cover that set media of all kinds afire in July. The stunt surely threatens to obscure the question-and-answer session it’s intended to advertise, but the duo cheerily critiques the campaign and its characters regardless. More»

Cynicism has killed satire, perhaps even humor altogether, in post 9/11 age

(NEWSER) - Many writers are scratching their heads at the incensed reactions provoked by the New Yorker’s Obamas-as-terrorists cover. Here’s some rebuttal:

• Liberals “have come to regard all images or texts that contain negative stereotypes as too politically dangerous to run,” Gary Kamiya writes in Salon. “Not a single work of satire could ever pass this paranoid test” in which merely acknowledging racism “is to be racist.”

'Offensive' drawing features Barack in turban, rifle-toting wife

(NEWSER) - Barack Obama's campaign has ripped an "offensive" New Yorker cover illustration depicting the candidate in a turban, fist-bumping his afro-sporting, AK-47-toting wife, Politico reports. The cover, intended by the magazine to lampoon the cartoonish image of Obama propagated by some of his right-wing critics, has sparked a flurry of denunciations. More»

First lady dishes on husband's skills with Jay Leno

(NEWSER) - If you thought the recent clip of President Obama singing was a fluke, think again: "He does have a beautiful voice, and he sings to me all the time," Michelle Obama told Jay Leno last night. Her husband often sings that very same song (Al Green's "Let's Stay Together"), she said, adding, "He sings a lot of Al Green, Marvin Gaye, a little Stevie [Wonder]. He likes the classics." More»