The Untouchables – HUMAN EVENTS — This interesting Pat Buchanan essay openly asks if Obama is getting special kid-gloves treatment by pretty much everyone. The flap over the New Yorker cartoon epitomizes the situation.
Why did progressives recoil [over the New Yorker cartoon]? Because the more savvy among them sense that, like much humor, this cartoon was an exaggeration that contained no small kernel of recognizable truth.
Hey no parodies! After all, Barack did dump the flag pin. Michelle did say she had never been proud of her country before now. Barack did don that Ali Baba outfit in Somalia. His father and stepfather were Muslims. He does have a benefactor, Bill Ayers, who said after 9-11 he regrets not planting more bombs in the 1960s. He did have a pastor who lionizes Black Muslim Minister Louis Farrakhan. Put glasses on him, and Barack could play Malcolm X in the movies.
And assume the point of the cartoon had been to satirize the Obamas. Why would that have been so outrageous? Journalists, after all, still celebrate Herblock, the cartoonist who portrayed Richard Nixon with the body of a rat climbing out of a sewer.
Hillary Clinton has been compared to the sex-starved Glenn Close character in “Fatal Attraction.” George Bush’s verbal gaffes are endlessly panned by late-night comics and Comedy Central. But Barack gets the special-ed treatment. Our first affirmative action candidate.
The New Yorker made a “damn-fool decision,” said George Lockwood, a lecturer on journalistic ethics.
David West of Brookings wailed to USA Today of the cartoon: “It’s the mass media at its worst. It perpetuates false information, and it’s highly inflammatory. … It gives credibility to what’s been circulating for months, and that’s what makes it dangerous.”
But dangerous to whom? Again, it is only a cartoon.
For it suggests that Obama is an untouchable to be protected. As an African-American, he is not to be treated the same as other politicians. Remnick and Hertzberg obviously felt intense moral pressure to remove any suspicion that they had satirized the Obamas. No problem, however, if they were mocking the American right.
The 1st Amendment for “progressives” now means Freedom of acceptable speech.
How that is progressive is anyone’s guess…
Especially irritating are the calls that the New Yorker should have “dumbed down” their satire.
Are we going to have accessibility regulations for humor?
I don’t understand this attitude that Barack is being treated with kid gloves, especially after the mainstream media’s constant coverage of the “news-worthy items” Buchanan listed in his article. As soon as I see more in the mainstream media about McCain’s constant “miss-statements”, ridiculous jokes about killing Iranians, the constant flip-flopping in order to appease his base, the way he treated his first wife, as well as all the other things they give him a pass on, I’ll consider their coverage fair and balanced.
The only reason it got any news coverage was because they could smell ratings on it. Did anybody actually care, or was it just a bunch of people looking to get some attention out of it? I think the latter, personally.
#3 “I don’t understand this attitude that Barack is being treated with kid gloves, especially after the mainstream media’s constant coverage of the “news-worthy items” Buchanan listed in his article.”
These items were brought to the attention of “mainstream” media months before they would touch them. The got embarrassed into reporting after months of being run by non-mainstream media.
#3 Matt, Here’s what I see. Every time there is a slam on Obama it’s picked up as a bad thing and repudiated and everyone gets so upset. Every time someone slams McCain for being old, for example, I never hear one thing about how age-ist these slams are when they are clearly age-ist. This has to be driving the politically correct crazy since they are the ones who promote the idea that we should not be age-ist. Furthermore many of the McCain gaffes, which must be ongoing at all the town halls he is doing, are never used against him because the media isn’t even attending these things. They are following Obama everywhere.
As for the bomb bomb bomb Iran I thought it was mildly funny as it was supposed to be. Obama seems to have no real sense of humor that I can see. His wife is no laugh riot, that’s for sure.
No, McBush is getting the Kid Glove Treatment !!! Why isn’t anyone asking the question the Repukes made famous ??? IE: Are you better off today than you were four (or eight) years ago ??? The Chart you ran on Dvorak here today show the answers !!! If the media asked McBush any HARD QUESTIONS, HE WOULD HAVE TO JUST CURL UP AND DIE !!!
Next on the New Yorker cover:
McCain will be gleefully waterboarding a Vietnamese soldier while a long line of handcuffed stereotypical “bad guys” stands in wait with bags over their heads.
And the laughs keep comin…
The first black candidate for president does mean many things are and will be different. It can only be better than the corrupt, racially bigoted shit we have had in the past. Most opposition to Obama is based on racial fear and ignorance which we seem to have in never ending supplies.
Nothing could be worse than Bush and his eternal but completely unnecessary war and McCain is just more bad government waiting to happen.
Let’s grow up and put aside our ignorant fears and give this man a chance. Maybe peace will happen instead of 100 more years of war as McCain predicts.
#7 “If the media asked McBush any HARD QUESTIONS, HE WOULD HAVE TO JUST CURL UP AND DIE !!!”
Kinda like if Omama where to join McCain in a free form public Q&A? But, alas, Omama refuses to do that as it isn’t scripted….
Buchanan is as full of crap as is Cow-Paddy.
Obama has been under the microscope far more than McCain has.
When Hagee, a McCain Pastoral supporter, told us Hitler was sent by god to deal with the Jews and Parsley who wanted holy war against all of Islam, the media said nothing. Yet they lambasted Obama for Wright’s comments, most of which are solidly based in history.
Obama got tagged by Rezco because they are neighbors. Yet McCain sleeps with Phil Gramm. Remember the guy partly responsible for $4 gas? Remember Enron? Remember the banks and their bailouts?
Obama has been consistent about torture, FISA, and Iraq. McCain has flip flopped all over each issue and usually ended up voting against what he said he was in favor of.
Buchanan is a wing nut who can’t see the forest for the trees. He hates Bush but hates Democrats more. McCain is such a screwed up candidate that he needs all the help the wing nuts can lie, cheat, invent, or whatever for him.
#9 “Most opposition to Obama is based on racial fear and ignorance which we seem to have in never ending supplies.”
You have a short memory or, you are very young.
Both parties BEGGED Powell to run for Pres on their ticket.
So, your statement above is of course incorrect
and ridiculous.
#11 “Obama has been consistent about torture, FISA, and Iraq. McCain has flip flopped all over each issue and usually ended up voting against what he said he was in favor of.”
Oh, you mean like the FISA bill that Omama just helped to pass?
God, this is like shooting fish in a barrel.
I vote Mr. Fusion as comic relief poster of the year!
#6, JCD,
Every time someone slams McCain for being old, for example, I never hear one thing about how age-ist these slams are when they are clearly age-ist.
No one commented about his age until he committed a gaffe and an aide told us it was a “senior moment”.
…many of the McCain gaffes, … snip …, are never used against him because the media isn’t even attending these things.
I disagree. They aren’t using them because McCain is getting a free pass. MSNBC often shows McCains gaffes at his town hall meetings.
#9 “The first black candidate for president does mean many things are and will be different. It can only be better than the corrupt, racially bigoted shit we have had in the past.”
I love how anyone who doesn’t like Obama is labeled as a racist. If I didn’t like Hillary either does that make me sexist too? What if I didn’t like Edward, bigoted against douchbags? Where does it end? The liberals are all about free speech and independent thought and expression until it conflicts with their own. I happen to disagree with Obama about the war, about the economy, about abortion, about taxes, about immigration and much more. But of course because I’m white and he’s black, if I don’t vote for him I’m racist. Well thanks, I’ll wear it as a badge of honor. I stand up for my beliefs and don’t let the extreme left guilt me into voting for a guy I disagree with.
If anyone is getting special treatment this time around, it has to be McCain. I haven’t once seen him torn apart for his mistakes in american media.
This is a brilliant attack on Obama by the Republicans! All the issues that have been brought up are BS, and the underlying message is being subconsciously planted.
The True Message of this Campaign: Obama is an Elitist
Well, I think NEITHER candidate is being covered for anything except the most superficial BS.
Their wives?
Their misspeaks?
Their friends?
Their flip-flops?
Their poll ratings?
ALL TOTAL BS!!!!!!!!!!!!
Where is the coverage of their proposed budgets to cover their spending programs? NOT A WORD ABOUT THAT!
The only thing that counts in political races is what the candidates are going to actually do==as in a program==as in budgets. FOLLOW THE MONEY.
Even the completely above average peanut gallery at DU is totally swayed by the campaigns and their stooges in the media.
Its why America is going down the toilet.
#18 – Good call. I tried for MONTHS to get this data out of the Obama campaign and was rebuffed constantly.
#10, Cow-Paddy
#7 “If the media asked McBush any HARD QUESTIONS, HE WOULD HAVE TO JUST CURL UP AND DIE !!!”
Kinda like if Omama where to join McCain in a free form public Q&A?
What the eff does your Nigerian grandmother have to do with McCain not being asked tough questions? Can McCain only answer tough questions with your grandmother present? Is she the one hidden by the lectern causing McCain to make all those gaffes? Hhmmm, does that conduct run in your family?
#12, Cow-Paddy,
Both parties BEGGED Powell to run for Pres on their ticket.
And he was unacceptable to the majority of wing nuts and the Democrats didn’t want a Republican But IF he had of run for the Democrats he would face the same obstacles currently faced by Obama.
#13, Cow-Paddy,
Oh, you mean like the FISA bill that Omama just helped to pass?
No. I said Obama. Did your Nigerian grandmother help to pass the FISA bill? What did she do? Kneel under the desks in order to get votes?
The wing nuts are pissed because the FISA bill didn’t give blanket immunity.
#19–Paddy==thank you==and we won’t have a budget or analysis of same from either candidate during the entire election cycle.
Its demoralizing and disgusting how sheep-like we are even when bellowing like wild animals, still only at the shadows and illusions thrown up by the process meant to keep us all in the dark, voting on values and personality, while those in power remain unaccountable.
Remarkable.
Dvorak, don’t disappoint me here!
Making fun of Nixon being drawn as a rat is hardly the same as a candidate which is being perceived as a Muslim which unfortunately is a dirty word among so many ignorant Americans. My grandfather reads a lot of forwards from his peer group of republican buddies who all believe that Obama is a Muslim and went to Muslim school. (Oh well if you read this crap in the local newspaper and your friends tell you that, IT MUST BE TRUE!)
Responsible journalism is not perpetuating stereotypes which are CLEARLY not true. Make fun of his ears, make fun of his perceived lack of experience… but what is irresponsible is using “satire” to make it seem as if he is bed with terrorists. I wish that politicians would stop preying on people’s fears and that is what I see so many people who support John McCain are doing.
I will vote out of rationality on not fear and I hope everyone else will too. I will be so happy when that hick George-dubyah is out of office.
(I am a Texan so I can say that! 😉
*IF* Obama is being treated with kid gloves because of his race, why might that be? Hint: google “Southern Strategy”. Yes, for decades the Republicans have used both blatant and subtle appeals to racism to win elections. So your claims to oppose Obama on his policies and not the color of his skin are, shall we say, less than convincing. And if you’re one of the Republicans who truly does, well, you should have stood up and protested the racism while it was winning you elections. A little too late now. The Republican party has the well-deserved reputation as the Grand Old Racism party.
Payback’s a bitch, ain’t it?
#18 – bobbo – … NEITHER candidate is being covered for anything except the most superficial BS. …
Good post and so true.
You want to talk about kid gloves? McCain has said that the media is his base, they barely cover any mistakes he’s made. He has changed his public policy positions on EVERY major issue since running for President.
Look at this week, Jesse Jackson is overheard saying he wants to castrate Obama and it gets play for 4 days, McCain has an old joke about a women enjoying being raped by an ape, the media says nothing, the campaign response is that its just McCain being McCain, media says nothing.
I know that neither of this things are major issues, but the number of times McCain has been misinformed, hasn’t thought about a issue or changed his policy completely for political expediency.
I don’t mind the making fun of Obama, he’s not a golden cow, but at least he’s consistent. Everyone overlooks the FISA vote wasn’t about telecom immunity, that was just a rider, it was about bringing the judicial process for detainees back under constitutional law. Why was this necessary? Because the Republicans (including John McCain) unconstitutionally (according to the Supreme Court) made military tribunals the courts for detainees over a year ago.
Shooting fish in a barrel, #13, really? Not when you actually UNDERSTAND the issue! Low information voters should not be trying to make these sort of arguments without doing some investigation, that includes all those low information pundits in mainstream media.
#23 Phydeau
Well if anyone would know about being a racist or a bitch that would be you. Might as well learn from an expert.
It seems to me that the magazine cover is less a parody of Obama, as much as ridicule of the media’s crazy speculation. To wit, “he’s a muslim” which was false. Also the “Terrorist fist bump” is pretty much the focal point of the image.
I’m pretty sure this is why all the mainstream media outlets have their panties in a wad. Because they know this, but cannot whine about it directly without looking even more foolish.
Be careful what you say!
He’s going to be the next President of the Estados Unidos de Ame’rica!!!!.
(I can’t wait to find out what is really going to happen!) WOW!
This should be a WILD RIDE indeed!!!
I’ll bet you 500 Pesos!!!
The problem with the New Yorker cover is that it’s only funny if you’re in on the joke. Most Americans aren’t as hip as the New Yorker’s core demographic, and all they will see is a somewhat disturbing depiction of the Obamas in the Oval Office … or if they already believe the stuff depicted in the cartoon, they’ll think it’s right on target. Even worse, they’ll think it must be true because it’s right there on the cover of the New Yorker, which everyone knows is a liberal elite magazine.
#18 & 21, Bobbo,
Where is the coverage of their proposed budgets to cover their spending programs? NOT A WORD ABOUT THAT!
Bullshit !!! Both candidates have extensive web sites explaining their platforms including economic issues. Surprise though, over 90% of what was happening during Clinton’s last year in office is still happening the same way.
I hope you don’t expect the networks to cover each speech entirely. Yes the sound bites predominate, but don’t forget that they are usually the most important minute of the speech. Each speech is very similar, if not the same, as what the candidate gave yesterday in Bumphuk and tomorrow in Wetodd.
I think I know your frustration and sorry to say, no candidate is going to stand there for three hours outlining the bases of his budget. They will give the rosy picture and ignore the downsides.