Freedom of Press
It becomes quite the sad day when our presidential candidates make it blatantly obvious that they find the concept of freedom of press to be unfavorable. I am sure they will want to claim otherwise, but what has been said by both campaigns about the cover of the July 21st issue of The New Yorker shows otherwise.
The cover of The New Yorker is a lampoon of the picture that the right-wing is trying to paint of Obama and his wife, Michelle. The cover shows Barack and Michelle fist-pounding in the Oval Office with the American flag burning in a furnace, and a picture of bin Laden hanging on the wall. Barack is in Islamic garb while his wife is dressed as a millitant with an AK-47 strapped over her shoulder. The Obama campaign did not take too kindly to this, and the McCain campaign quickly followed suit, both claiming the cover to be inappropriate.
I have no problem with either candidate having an issue with the cover of the magazine. It is easily seen as offensive, though I do not agree with that. The problem I have is both campaigns taking a stance against the magazine. Publically giving the magazine a lashing only contributes to the idea that the media should have no controversy, which ultimately means the truth has to be sugarcoated or ignored, altogether.
Perhaps, I would not view this as such a big deal if there was no significant censorship, but we know that is not true. There is an ever increasing idea that people should not have to be exposed to things that they are uncomfortable with. It is absurd that people think there is a need to control what is said or published. People have the choice of ignoring what it is they do not like, but yet they continue to think that what they do not like is what everybody else should not like. It is unfortunate, but this is our reality, and it sucks.
In other words, people need to grow some thicker skin, and presidential candidates need to get over themselves. If people are turned off to their campaigns by stupid, immature slander, then they never had the vote in the first place. I would feel a lot better if candidates would concentrate on the issues rather than what a satirical magazine publishes.