The big news of the past few days has been the New Yorker's cover featuring a cartoon drawing of Barack and Michelle Obama as terrorists. Among the issues this raises in relation to this class: What counts as satire and who gets to decide? What role does race play in satire? How much do the producer's intentions and perceived audience matter (e.g., does is matter if this were the cover of the New Yorker, Time, or the Weekly Standard)?
This Jon Stewart segment has several clips of the outrage (outrage!) offered by the media. He points out that this is just a cartoon and shouldn't be taken seriously, which raises a final question about the media's role in determining what subjects should be part of the 24-hour news cycle and what gets left out. I agree that there are more serious political topics to be discussed, but at the same time it in useful to examine the topics (or cartoons) than are offered for discussion instead.
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