Media Matters

The blogosphere and mainstream media were all abuzz today over the controversial cover on the latest issue of The New Yorker. Illustrator Barry Blitt has done a number of provocative covers for the magazine, but his latest shows Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama in the Oval Office, adorned in Muslim attire, a photo of Ossama Bin Laden on the wall and a burning American flag in the fire place, giving a “terrorist fist bump” to wife Michelle, herself decked out like a ’60s-era Black militant.

The picture has drawn stiff criticism from the Obama camp and even condemnation from Republican presidential hopeful John McCain, but the magazine is defending its decision, saying it is just another example of the type of satire Blitt is famous for.

The picture is satire, designed to draw attention to many of the ridiculous rumors that have swirled around Obama since he announced his candidacy. No one with any intelligence would take it seriously. But America is full of people lacking in basic intelligence or the ability to discern the truth from concocted lies and deliberate distortions. Many are just gullible enough to believe every single one of these and other rumors. And they vote.

The New Yorker article does go into great detail about the calculated rise of Barack Obama.

While that controversy brews, another flew in under the radar. This past weekend, syndicated television commentator John McLaughlin of The McLaughlin Group, asserted that Obama “fits the stereotype blacks once labeled as an Oreo — a black on the outside, a white on the inside.”

The watchdog group, Media Matters, wants McLaughlin to publicly apologize and has created a campaign to raise public awareness.

Finally, David Simon, executive producer of the critically acclaimed television series The Wire may be off on his next great adventure. Simon, who already produces the HBO miniseries Generation Kill, set during the Iraq War, has just gotten the greenlight from that network to produce a pilot about life in post-Katrina New Orleans. “Treme,” named after the New Orleans neighborhood where many musicians live, will film its first episode sometime later this year. The show promises to take a critical look at life in the city itself and if it gets picked up, production could start in 2009. Former “Wire” star and New Orleans native Wendell Pierce is one of the first names attached to the project.