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Media Largely Ignore Identity of Obama Joker Poster Artist

By Noel Sheppard (Bio Archive)August 19, 2009 - 11:06 ET


Imagine for a moment the person that created the now famous Obama Joker poster was found to be a white conservative that voted for John McCain and Sarah Palin last November.
Do you think Obama-loving media outlets would have reported the revelation?
Probably 24 hours a day for the next couple of weeks until the episode became a "teachable moment" and the perpetrator was forced to have a beer with the President and Vice President.
Yet, when the Los Angeles Times reported early Monday evening the artist was a liberal-leaning Palestinian, most press members couldn't have cared less.
LexisNexis and Google news searches identified the following major media outlets completely ignored the story:
The Associated Press
Reuters
AFP
The New York Times
The Washington Post
USA Today
ABC
CBS
NBC
MSNBC
Most of the coverage concerning Firas Alkhateeb was done by Chicago papers where he's from, as well as Los Angeles where the first posters were apparently sighted. Some television outlets did reports at their respective websites including this one by ABC's Jake Tapper.
CNN mentioned Alkhateeb only once on Tuesday, and that was during "Lou Dobbs Tonight." Fox News's Sean Hannity also covered the story on his program.
Would Alkhateeb's unmasking have been so largely ignored if he fit the racist, right-wing template media outlets espoused before the truth came out?
Yes, that was a rhetorical question.