The New Yorker and Fox News

I don't have much to say about The New Yorker's controversial cover art. Sure it's kind of funny; sure it's kind of stupid. Whatever.

What I find most interesting is that Fox News is now republishing such a liberal magazine's cover art on its website. On the one hand, I think it's hilarious that Fox is happily providing free advertising to a publication that is its antithesis in almost every conceivable way. On the other hand, I wonder if The New Yorker's editors put much thought into the excuse they'd be giving organizations like Fox to print a cartoon they'd love to popularize but couldn't otherwise get away with showing.

I suppose it's really a win-win situation for Fox and The New Yorker given all the publicity the whole episode has generated. And I can't imagine this will have any significant impact on Obama's chances of winning. Therefore, the only losers here are those of us who waste so much of our time lapping up whatever vapid and venial tripe our excessively self-indulgent media spews out on any given day of the week.

Seriously, people, read more blogs--especially those written by experts in important fields such as constitutional law, global security, and climate change. Many of these sources are doing a lot of excellent original reporting these days. And they talk about themselves far less than has become standard in much of the mainstream media.