The Poor Judgement Awards

Today's Poor Judgment Award ("The Pudgy") goes to the editorial board at The New Yorker for allowing this (links to Huffington Post article) cover to run unedited.


The cartoon, titled The Politics of Fear, is meant to be satirical: it is satirical. It satirizes the fear-mongering that politicos use to sully Barack Obama's character. It's a representation of what Obama's opponents want you to think so that you will vote for the other guy (or gal). Although it's provocative, Barry Blitt's (the artist) intention is obviously to point out the absurdities of branding the Obamas as unpatriotic (even in some cases implying that they have links to terrorism). The satire is obvious and it raises very good point. There's only one problem.

Understanding this picture is almost entirely contingent upon knowing its title. If this illustration was untitled, it would certainly be presumptuous, offensive and libelous. The title is part of the satirical nature of the illustration. Looking at pictures of the cover, though, no title is present. Oops.

Many people will ask why The New Yorker ran this cover, but that's not the right question. They should be questioning why they printed it without a title. The people at The New Yorker are not stupid; they hit the nail right on the head as far as satire goes. The satire is valid and relevant. Now, though, because of the way they decided to publish it, they allow (and compel) people to misinterpret the illustration in whatever manner they are prone to.

Way to go editors of The New Yorker. This could have been avoided with a cover line. I don't blame them for publishing a provocative political illustration because that's what they do. They are guilty of bad judgment, though, for omitting a cover line.