My wife and I have a subscription to The New Yorker but we have yet to receive out copy of the magazine with the so-called constorversial cover that depicts Barack Obama as a Islamic Muslim Extremist and his wife, Michelle Obama, as an angry black woman radical toting a gun. Whether this cartoon cover art is offensive or not, I’m not really interested in debating anymore, but I want my copy, dammit! And I want it now.
Colleen emailed The New Yorker tha we had not yet received our copy of this issue. And this is the reply we got:
Dear Mr. Lopez:
We are sorry to inform you that the issue you requested is no longer available.
We have extended your subscription one issue for each issue requested.
The new expiration date will appear on your address label in the near future.
You may visit our website to access your account online at http://www.newyorker.com/
Simply click on “Subscription Questions” in the upper right corner of the main page, and you will be directed to the Customer Care page to access your account.
Your account number will be required for entry: 540707932
If you should need further assistance, please be sure to include all previous e-mail correspondence.
Thank you again for your interest in The New Yorker.
Sincerely,
Jayme
Customer’s email address: Colleen.Carlin@marketstrategies.com
Case id: 5988847
No longer available? What the fuck is that supposed to mean? I tell you what it means. That The New Yorker editorial board is bunch of pussies. It wasn’t as if they didn’t know what they were doing when they put this cartoon on the cover of their magazine. And now that it has garnered negative press they pull it. Talk about your journalistic integrity. I am fucking disgusted.
Now, I’ve been reading The New Yorker since I started college, discovering it when I was in community college — what can I say? I grew up in a very blue collar neighborhood and in a household where we read the two Detroit newspapers and maybe Michigan Out-of-Doors, Field and Stream, Fly Fisherman, House and Garden and Family Circle — and began subscribing when I was an undergrad at Eastern Michigan University. I’ve had lapses in my subscription, at times when I could ill-afford to pay for a magazine because I had to pay rent and bills and eat, but I’ve always reupped ASAP. Now, I’m seriously considering just cancelling my subscription and ditching the magazine for good.
Perhaps that’s petty and reactionary. But I really don’t give a shit. If, as a journalistic entity, going to go out on a limb like they did with that cover, they need to stand by it. Or don’t do it to begin with.
2 Comments
July 24, 2008 at 2:32 pm
[...] Your husband’s blog at http://junkdrawer67.wordpress.com/2008/07/23/i-want-my-new-yorker-dammit/ [...]
November 9, 2008 at 6:55 pm
[...] I blogged about this issue of The New Yorker when I did not receive my copy in the mail. I was pissed because I thought that The New Yorker, because of the controversy that swelled up around the cover, had decided not to mail out these copies. It turned out that I’d jumped the gun because it showed up in my mailbox the very next day, which I blogged about as well, joking that I’d intimidated The New Yorker into sending me the issue with my scathing blog post read by almost a dozen people at most. Then, to my surprised, it turned out that The New Yorker really had read my blog and contacted Colleen to let them know they could send out a copy. That wasn’t necessary of course. But Colleen did get an extra copy from someone that she worked with. But I can’t find that one either. [...]