Monday, July 14, 2008

Obama, the New Yorker, and #42, Sliding Into Home   [Byron York]

New Yorker editor David Remnick discussed the Obama cover with the Huffington Post yesterday.  "[I]t combines a number of images that have been propagated, not by everyone on the right but by some, about Obama's supposed 'lack of patriotism' or his being 'soft on terrorism' or the idiotic notion that somehow Michelle Obama is the second coming of the Weathermen or most violent Black Panthers," Remnick said.  The point of the cover is to "hold up a mirror to the prejudice and dark imaginings…"

But the New Yorker isn't all about lampooning Obama's foes.  Sometimes it's about celebrating Obama.  From Remnick:

About five weeks ago we were about two hours from running a cover of Obama in a Brooklyn Dodger's uniform, sliding into home. And his number was #42. And anyone with even a little bit of knowledge of baseball history knows this is Jackie Robinson. So this was kind of a turn on Obama being the Jackie Robinson of American politics - in a way - and no doubt people on the Obama campaign would not have found it offensive — they would have immediately understood what we were trying to say, that Obama had jumped an enormous historical barrier.  The only reason I yanked it was because it turned out someone had already done this, used this image on some political baseball cards. So I unfortunately held back that really good image…

07/14 09:38 AMShare