Here’s an example of really poor editorial judgment. The Roswell (GA) Beacon, a weekly free paper, featured the image at left on its cover. The article in the edition was actually relevant — about the increasing threats against Barack Obama from white supremacists in the state. (AJC):
“We knew we were on the provocative edge,” Altork said. “But it’s a very fair piece, a smart piece.”Blender Jeremy from Cobb (GA) gets the hat tip for this one.The article was pitched and reported by veteran freelance journalist Alan Sverdlik, who said he was curious how law enforcement agencies were handling the increased number of threats lodged against Obama by white supremacist groups, some of whom are based around north Fulton. Sverdlik said Tuesday he had not seen the cover and had no input in its development.
The Beacon’s publisher said the art “projected the story,” one which he believes serves a valuable public interest: “We’re hoping federal law enforcement takes notice.” So far, however, the content inside has been obscured by the furor over its illustration.
“Their slogan is ‘responsibly provocative,’” wrote Miami teacher Rian Fike. “This is irresponsibly inflammatory.” And poorly timed, though The Beacon can’t be held accountable on that front. The article’s publication coincided with an ill-advised quip by former Republican presidential candidate Mike Huckabee after a loud noise interrupted his speech to the National Rifle Association.
“That was Barack Obama,” Huckabee said. “He just tripped off a chair. He’s getting ready to speak and somebody aimed a gun at him and he — he dove for the floor.”
…”That was a bad break for us,” Altork said.
You won’t find this Tar Heel defending that element of the South. There’s plenty more in the piece that will turn your stomach…go read the rest. There’s also a big thread on DKos on this.“With the selection of Barack Obama as the first black Democrat nominee for President seeming more possible by the day, racists and white supremacists are posting increasingly ugly and threatening remarks on the Internet,” says Mark Potok, resident expert on the radical right at the Southern Poverty Law Center in Montgomery, Ala., the arch-nemesis of the Ku Klux Klan and its allies.
He adds, “The most heated anti-Obama talk appears on sites that allow people to post messages anonymously. The so-called white nationalists who inhabit these sites are deeply concerned that their comments are being monitored by law enforcement for any criminal threat relating to the presidential race.”
…With 42 active white power cells, Georgia ranks fourth in the country behind California, Texas and South Carolina, according to the Montgomery center, whose investigative arm, KlanWatch, supplies intelligence to state and federal law enforcement agencies. Ironically, their map shows a concentration in metro Atlanta, with sprinklings in the state’s northeast and northwest. The League of the South, described as neo-Confederate, and The Council of Conservative Citizens, deemed white nationalist, operate on the periphery of the North Fulton suburbs.
…“Libertarians, gun nuts, conspiracy theorists, leftovers from the militias, and yes, some who are petrified by Obama and what he represents. That’s the group we’ve got here,” says Mack Reynolds, a rare coin dealer. “We stay in touch by computer, fax and shortwave radio and have a little get-together every month. I’d say that 95 percent of them are good, honest, hardworking people.”
Down a worn path through the brush, uniformed men, some with protruding bellies, others with faces painted green and black, crouched in wet grass as they practiced reconnaissance, ambushes and self-defense. As they attempted an obstacle course, their grunts and groans brought smirks to the faces of some of the women.
“They’re practicing military maneuvers which, evidently, many of them have forgotten,” says Reynolds, smiling himself as he turns over a slab of pork.
***
Bonus bigotry: at least this WingNutDaily freak cuts right to the chase:
…for whom will you vote?I guess we have to be grateful he didn’t use Buckwheat. This fall we will see the full re-emergence of open and honest racism in this country. No doubt about it; we’ve been getting an appetizer so far; the full course is on the way. These people cannot contain themselves.
Posted by Sol on May 19, 2008 21:07mccain, or 3rd party - just to keep Stymie from the Office.
http://www.chopperfreak.com/stymie.jpg
21 Responses to “Georgia: publication features Obama in crosshairs on cover for article on white supremacist threat”
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Why do these fools always assume that liberals are unarmed?
“I’d say that 95 percent of them are good, honest, hardworking white people.” - fixed that for him…
They’re just good, old-fashioned, hard-working white people, with not a racist bone in their bodies! And somebody has the audacity to think they are racists just be cause they don’t like Black people, especially in positions of power, and most especially as POTUS.
Well bless their hearts!
There seems to be a goodly segment of this nation that needs to understand the definitions of some important words.
A person who decides they know how another person will behave, how they “are”, how they will “act”, “talk”, “look”, make decisions, etc., purely on the basis of their perceived “race” IS A RACIST. PERIOD.
Why is that so hard to accept and understand? You believe like Archie Bunker? Then you’re no different.
Face your bigotry. If you like it, let everyone else know so we can shun you. If you don’t like it, then do something about it…
…and that cover? WHAT WERE THEY THINKING? Some segment of Americans will see that and have a stain on the front of their jeans out of pure excitement. STUPID!…
“Some segment of Americans will see that and have a stain on the front of their jeans out of pure excitement.”
To be fair, there is also a segment of Americans who will see it and get why allegations that the Secret Service is bringing their B Game to his detail and may in fact be pretty racist in and of itself are a Big Fucking Deal. It’s a pretty stark illustration of exactly what the article is addressing–plots to assassinate a presidential candidate.
They were just trying to make a point. Bad taste, certainly, but it wasn’t malicious, like that T-shirt that had Obama as Curious George.
As for the possibility of an assassination, those things really are random events that have little or nothing to do with the candidate’s popularity. All it takes is one nut, and nuts can go after anyone, for any reason.
“As for the possibility of an assassination, those things really are random events that have little or nothing to do with the candidate’s popularity. All it takes is one nut, and nuts can go after anyone, for any reason.”
But if you are a person who is, say, BLACK and poised to win the presidency then you are likely to have a lot more nuts out there plotting against you that any randomly selected politician or candidate. To talk about any danger he is in as if it were random seems crazy to me.
The one drop theory is alive and well, folks.
Obama is every bit as white as he is black, but that don’t mean nothing to know nothings.
That said, I’m glad the newspaper tackled this issue, and I certainly hope that their work covering an important but downplayed issue isn’t overshadowed by their over-the-top choice of cover graphic. Really bad taste? Hell yeah - but the discomfort will, perhaps, bring some attention to the issue.
Bitter Scribe:
Random?
John F. Kennedy
Robert F. Kennedy
Medgar Evers
Malcolm X
Martin Luther King
Mohandas Gandhi
(I know I’m forgetting others.)
There’s nothing much random about centre-to-left politicians and activists being continually murdered.
I’m with GumbyAnne on this.
I remember when Bill Clinton was told he should avoid certain military bases in the South because there was no guarantee somebody might not apply some “military oversight” on his ass. I realize is was sort of said jokingly. I think. It didn’t seem like it could actually be a serious comment - did it?…
Anyway, by having the audacity to be born Black, Obama has had a (small) target on his back from the beginning. With every move up the political ladder, it’s gotten bigger.
And POTUS is pretty much the top…
…and I am genuinely scared there’s some present day Lee Harvey Oswald / James Earl Ray / Sirhan Sirhan waiting out there for his chance to become yet another of America’s lone gunmen…
“Libertarians, gun nuts, conspiracy theorists, leftovers from the militias, and yes, some who are petrified by Obama and what he represents.”
mmmmmrrrrmmm yesh, libertarians are always out there on the “go kill people” tip.
I for one welcome our new Obama overlords!
And here we go again. Another episode of Stupid Designer Tricks. Who the fuck thought this was a good idea? And who approved that decision?
The one drop theory is alive and well, folks.
Obama is every bit as white as he is black, but that don’t mean nothing to know nothings.
Ms. Kate, you have a solid point here, but in all fairness I think it’s more ‘visual read’ than ‘one drop’ in Obama’s case. While I’m sure if we had a candidate who looked white and had a black grand or great-grandparent we’d still be getting nutsos who would want a black president, I doubt it would be anywhere near the level we’re seeing now. And they would likely be perceived as “those nutsos who think the guy’s black.”
Not that I’m saying that makes things better, just that there’s the hateful lunatics and the truly scary hateful lunatics.
I think I was trying to find a silver lining somewhere, but I just managed to utterly depress myself. Ow.
*nutsos who wouldn’t want a black president
I can haz edit button?
Mike apparently suffers the common affliction of being unable to finish reading a sentence once one has decided to be offended by it:
In italics is that shameful, terrible smear against libertarians. In bold is the small insignificant detail that said smear was not delivered by some hateful statist oppressor liberal, but in fact by a member of the described group. If you have an issue with white supremacists describing themselves as libertarians, you might want to take it up with them.Frankly, I’m more upset by how advocates of private despotism describe themselves as libertarians.
The cover is disturbing, but I’m not sure it’s intrinsically inappropriate.
Joking about assassination would be in bad taste. But this is not a joke, or even hyperbole. It’s a hard-hitting representation of a stark and ugly reality.
Obama got Secret Service protection earlier than any other candidate in US history because of the credible threats against him. Emails have surfaced that prove the existence of extremely racist cliques within the dignitary protection branch of the Secret Service that love to swap jokes about lynchings.
Actually I think the cover is perfect. It has done exactly what it was supposed to do…. give notice to an important subject. Would it be on Pandagon if it didn’t have that cover?
“It has done exactly what it was supposed to do…. give notice to an important subject. Would it be on Pandagon if it didn’t have that cover?”
This is hardly the first time Pandagon has had an entry about racist lunatics posing a threat to Obama’s personal safety, though. This particular article might not be on Pandagon were it not for that cover, but it’s not like the publication has managed to get the issue on the blog all by its lonesome.
xyzian:
But who was the last president to actually stop a bullet? Ronald Reagan, the most right-wing president of modern times.Gerald Ford was almost killed twice. He’d have been dead if Squeaky Fromme had remembered to cock her pistol.
George Wallace was left in a wheelchair by a lunatic’s bullet.
I stand by my point. Assassinations are random events, powered by lunacy, which is inherently unpredictable.
This is why Chuck D needs to be Obama’s veep.
Uh.
And why would it be that we tend to read anyone with darker-than-pale skin and/or kinky hair as (part) black? If I see someone who has blond hair or blue eyes, I don’t automatically think “ooh, part nordic” and start basing my evaluation of their cultural and economic situation on that fact. The only races we “read” people as being when they’re obviously mixed are nonwhite.
Where have you been? There has been “open and honest racism” against Condi Rice for the last four years. It has just been coming from the left, rather than the right.
“Where have you been? There has been “open and honest racism” against Condi Rice for the last four years. It has just been coming from the left, rather than the right.”
Oh really? Proof? Or are you just another troll talking out of his ass?…
Dr. Condoleezza Rice has given her critics an enormous bounty of incompetence to criticize her for. Her ethnic heritage has nothing to do with it…