Vanity Fair spoofs New Yorker cover

(Vanity Fair)

In a little intramural joshing in the magazine world, Vanity Fair today posted a send-up of the by-now infamous New Yorker cover meant to be a satire of attacks on Barack Obama's patriotism.

The New Yorker's version showed Democrat Obama in Muslim garb fist-bumping his wife Michelle while the American flag burned in the fireplace under a portrait of Osama bin Laden.

Vanity Fair's shows Republican John McCain, using a walker, fist-bumping his wife Cindy while the Constitution burns in the fireplace with a portrait of President Bush over the mantle.

"We here at Vanity Fair maintain a kind of affectionate rivalry with our downstairs neighbors at The New Yorker," the magazine's editors say, explaining their spoof. "We play softball every year, compete for some of the same stories, and share an elevator bank. (You can tell the ones who are headed to the 20th floor by their Brooklyn pallor and dog-eared paperbacks.) And heaven knows we’ve published our share of scandalous images, on the cover and otherwise. So we’ve been watching the kerfuffle over last week’s New Yorker cover with a mixture of empathy and better-you-than-us relief.

"We had our own presidential campaign cover in the works, which explored a different facet of the Politics of Fear, but we shelved it when The New Yorker’s became the “It Girl” of the blogosphere. Now, however, in a selfless act of solidarity with our downstairs neighbors here at the Condé Nast building, we’d like to share it with you."

The July 21, 2008 New Yorker cover