2008 Woodie Awards
Muslims, cartoons, & satire, oh my
Jon Gold - The Daily Iowan
Issue date: 7/16/08 Section: Opinions
It's another one of those sky-is-falling weeks, sad to say. The end times are clearly nigh, wherever that is. The president opened our coastline (well, not ours per se; you might remember that Iowa has very little coastline) to oil exploitation, because what the country really needs right now is a bunch of ugly derricks ruining the view and saving us almost nothing in gas prices. (Congress has displayed a heartening reticence to act on the president's latest dippy suggestion.) America's financial system is about one snide remark away from total disaster, thanks - as I understand it - to a couple of very irresponsible country folk named Freddie and Frannie.
But no, that's not the worst of it. Apparently, the cover of this week's New Yorker makes fun of Barack and Michelle Obama. Now there's something we can all pay attention to without disturbing our corporate overlords!
Full disclosure: I'm a New Yorker subscriber. I also listen to NPR, drink espresso drinks, and would be driving a Prius if I had the money, so if you can think of some liberal stereotypes I haven't fulfilled yet, please let me know. I have not yet gotten my copy of the offensive cover, however. (And whom do I talk to about that, anyway?) Said cover, as I'm sure you already know, depicts Sen. Barack and Michelle Obama as Muslim terrorists, in a funny, if heavy-handed satire of the staggeringly dumb rumors that the senator is some sort of secret Muslim.
There's nothing we in the media like more than inflating some nonsense issue into screeching prominence, because it helps us conceal the fact that we don't understand the more complicated ones and are frequently too lazy to figure them out. Front and center: The incredibly true story of Fannie and Freddie, those star-crossed, federally sponsored pseudo-corporations whose very natures are the subject of some debate. What's a "government-sponsored entity" when it's at home? Are we headed for another Great Depression? Why must taxpayers ante up every time some greedy half-wits in the financial sector cause a massive collapse? (It's not enough that they rob us; we have to pay for the privilege, it seems.) You see discussion of issues like this in maybe 10 percent of the nation's newsprint and almost none on its public airwaves. Sometimes it seems like the media attention paid to a given issue is inversely related to how important it actually is.
But no, that's not the worst of it. Apparently, the cover of this week's New Yorker makes fun of Barack and Michelle Obama. Now there's something we can all pay attention to without disturbing our corporate overlords!
Full disclosure: I'm a New Yorker subscriber. I also listen to NPR, drink espresso drinks, and would be driving a Prius if I had the money, so if you can think of some liberal stereotypes I haven't fulfilled yet, please let me know. I have not yet gotten my copy of the offensive cover, however. (And whom do I talk to about that, anyway?) Said cover, as I'm sure you already know, depicts Sen. Barack and Michelle Obama as Muslim terrorists, in a funny, if heavy-handed satire of the staggeringly dumb rumors that the senator is some sort of secret Muslim.
There's nothing we in the media like more than inflating some nonsense issue into screeching prominence, because it helps us conceal the fact that we don't understand the more complicated ones and are frequently too lazy to figure them out. Front and center: The incredibly true story of Fannie and Freddie, those star-crossed, federally sponsored pseudo-corporations whose very natures are the subject of some debate. What's a "government-sponsored entity" when it's at home? Are we headed for another Great Depression? Why must taxpayers ante up every time some greedy half-wits in the financial sector cause a massive collapse? (It's not enough that they rob us; we have to pay for the privilege, it seems.) You see discussion of issues like this in maybe 10 percent of the nation's newsprint and almost none on its public airwaves. Sometimes it seems like the media attention paid to a given issue is inversely related to how important it actually is.
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