Every week, The New Yorker publishes a drawing that is quirky, poetic, humorous, or a bit strange on its cover. Its long-time subscribers probably weren’t too offended by the weekly’s latest cover that shows the Obamas in the Oval Office in the guise of terrorists.

Barack Obama is in traditional Muslim garb (turban and djellaba ), while his wife Michelle, sporting an « Afro » hairdo, is in combat fatigues with a Kalashnikov slung across her shoulder. The American flag burns in the fireplace and a portrait of Osama bin Laden adorns the wall.

The image pushed to the point of absurdity certain remarks that are heard here and there about Barack Obama : he’s not tough about confronting terrorism ; his middle name Hussein betrays his Muslim roots, and so on.

Even McCain, the Republican candidate, once described him as the “candidate of Hamas” According to a poll recently published in Newsweek , 25 percent of Americans believe Obama was raised a Muslim and 12 percent that he took the oath of office on the Koran when he became a senator ! Irony is a tool that should be used with care. [French newspapers] Libération and Rue89 had best remember that.

I like this provocative image. But irony is rarely a good mix with news. Though a majority of readers of any newspaper understand the subtext, many others are terribly narrow-minded. I remember a headline that we wrote for Libération when [former French Prime Minister Jean-Pierre] Raffarin was named prime minister : Finally, Raffarin ! ! Such a reaction over such an un-charismatic character made journalists laugh during the news meeting [when editors decide what to publish]. But readers didn’t completely understand, and as a result, they mustn't have fully appreciated it. Derision doesn’t work well in news. Recently, Rue89 paid the price of publishing a humorous story [french].

And so, the cover of The New Yorker, a left-leaning weekly, triggered an outcry on the other side of the Atlantic. Obama’s campaign team didn't at all share the magazine’s sense of humor, saying it was in “bad taste and offensive.” The Republican candidate, John McCain, even said the cover was “totally inappropriate.”

The New Yorker laboriously justified itself in a statement : the drawing denounces “prejudice, the hateful, and the absurd.” Too late. The damage is done, the cover is being discussed on blogs and, out of this whole affair, it's the image of Obama as a terrorist that will leave its mark on people’s minds.

Translated By Kate Davis
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