Alright I talked about the New Yorker cover, so I figured I would talk about the Vanity Fair response. While the Vanity Fair cartoon is in poor taste, it isn't as bad as the New Yorker. Let me start by saying I think the Vanity Fair response would be for the most part acceptable except for one thing: The constitution in the fire place. Now I know most would think that it is simply because of my bias that I think this. However if you look at the two cartoons there is a big difference, TRUTH. Like I said the burning constitution is plain wrong. However Cindy McCain did have a problem with pills, even though it is somewhat in poor taste. John McCain would be the oldest president we have ever had. Also the picture of George Bush really shouldn't be offensive, since Senator McCain now promotes most of Bush's ideas. The difference with the Obama cartoon is that there is that he's not a Muslim, his wife has no ties to Black militants, and he has no ties to the nation's most hated enemy Osama bin Ladin. Also in my last post I talked about the historical factors. If the Vanity Fair cartoon would have been first, I most likely would have condemned it. I feel that Vanity Fair was not only trying to balance the scales, but also take some shots at The New Yorker. While I believe the Vanity Fair cartoon is not as bad as The New Yorker's cartoon, neither are really helpful to the political process. Diminishing the McCain and Obama to negative caricatures takes focus away from the issues. The issues that are going to decided what kind of country we live in.

I've tried, but it's time...

I've tried for so long to try to keep Fox News' fair and balanced news coverage out of my blog. Mainly I wanted to do this because it seems like every liberal is always whining about Fox. However after what I saw recently, I can't keep my mouth shut. Fox aired a news report about Senator Obama jumping on the General Patreas band wagon. Back last September there was an add that ran calling him General Betrayus. The house voted on a resolution to condemn the add. The recent Fox News reports have claimed that Obama did not vote for the resolution. The problem is that it is public record that Senator Obama did vote for the resolution. It is one thing to have pundits who claim that there are problems with Obama. It is just ludacris in this age of media for a news organization to make a "mistake" like that. It is obvious that Fox does not care about the truth. They simply want to attack Obama with anything, even if it is an boldface lie. Most of know that Fox is far from fair and balanced. Unfortunately there are those that actually get their news from this journalistic wasteland.

Polls don't matter

A new poll, that has been reported on by all the major news organizations, says that over 60% of white Americans have a negative view of Obama. We all know to get an accurate poll, the poll must have a large enough sampling of the population to properly represent the populous. So how many people were polled: a million, 100 thousand, 10 thousand? The actually polled less than 2,000 people. There is no way to get a legitimate poll with this small of a sampling. Depending on econmic levels, education levels, and geographic area of pollees can make a huge difference. However polling just a few of each group is simply ridiculous. People wonder why polls keep being wrong. This is why.

Satire or poor taste?

This is the photo The New Yorker is claiming to be satire. The obama camp says that it is in poor taste. The argument from the magazine is that the cartoon points out the ridiculousness of the ideas that have been spread about Senator Obama seems to be a good one. Unfortunately The New Yorker did not explain the photo in any article, and beyond that mostly attacked Senator Obama for his "flip flopping". Most intelligent people can look at this and say it's in poor taste or that it is an attempt at satire. The problem is that people that believe that Obama is a Muslim (12% believe this according to the latest polls, and 1% think he's Jewish and that's just funny) aren't the educated people in our country. I understand the New Yorker's audience is most likely educated enough to not see this as a reality. Unfortunately this picture will circulate through the internet and be used the Republicans (not the McCain camp itself, but some supporters will) to put fear into uneducated white people. It perpetuates the stigmas that have been placed on Barack and Michelle Obama. My final point is that even if this an attempt to tear down stereotypes, this is not the way to do it. For far too long racist caricatures have been a staple in this country. It was used during the time of slavery to denagrate blacks. They were used during segregation to motivate fear that blacks would destroy our country if they were given freedom. Now our country has taken an enormous step forward, and this simply takes back to a time in our history that all Americans should be ashamed of.