This is the New Yorker's new cover, depicting Barack Obama and his wife Michelle in the Oval Office. It accompanies a big article about how Obama maybe was not always about CHANGE but in fact may have been a skilled Chicago politician at some point. The cover promises to become an election flashpoint, and the presumptive Democratic nominee's campaign has already called it "tasteless and offensive." The caricature, according to the Huffington Post, "combines every smeary right-wing stereotype imaginable" about Obama. Ha ha, as if. Sure, the stereotypes about Obama being a flag-burning terrorist muslim and Michelle being an ashamed-of-America black power revolutionary are all there, but shouldn't Obama somehow also be an aloof Harvard elitist who hates "bitter" working-class whites? Instead, he's in rags and robes, with no jewelry or caviar or sociology texts and so forth. Anyway, the cartoonist said he's trying to mock the stereotypes, not perpetuate them:

So while we're on the subject of Radar and who owns them and what they won't cover, let's all read this fun story about the Jesse Jackson family from last February's New Republic! It's about Barack Obama the Jackson kids. First: the younger Jacksons like Barry Obama a lot more than Jesse Sr. This has been amply demonstrated recently. But the Obama family and the Jackson family are totally intertwined! Let's learn about that, shall we?

The hip hop magazine XXL has a serious problem: It was founded back in the days when hip hop people actually wore XXL clothes. Now, everybody wears tight pants, and young'uns don't even understand what "XXL" means. So Byron "Bol" Crawford, a blogger for the magazine's website-whom I secretly love (NO HOMO, Bol) because he is perhaps the most offensive asshole on earth-is trying to revive the relevance of XXL's name by encouraging hip hop to "reclaim its manliness." By, uh, smashing all "teh gheyness."

"Menupages, the New York City based online restaurant menu guides site, is being bought out by New York Magazine, we have learned. This is the first such online buy for NYM..." [Paid Content via Silicon Alley Insider]

Reverend Jesse Jackson's secretly videotaped vow to cut off Barack Obama's nuts is a wonderful story, combining inter-generational resentment, racial politics and testicles. A wonderful story, that is, for every media outlet except Maer Roshan's Radar. The magazine is backed in name at least by Yusef Jackson, the Reverend's hotter and gayer son, who would have been better advised to stick with glamorous and manly beer distributorship his father arranged for him.

The Wall Street Journal would like to inform you about 4chan.org, a "website" that starts "memes" such as "LOLCats," which is "humorous images of cats with loud text beneath them in a fake language," and the "Rick Roll," an "online bait-and-switch" that sends you to "the music video of Rick Astley's "Never Gonna Give You Up," a hit song from 1988." The Wall Street Journal, by the way, is a "newspaper." And formerly anonymous 4chan founder Christopher Poole was on a self-revealing spree, because the same day, Time magazine ran a 4chan story as well. It's a LOL-MSM-MEME unto itself!

America's celebrity magazines are facing a grave situation: the interest in celebrities themselves is not great enough to move the millions of copies they need to sell. No, all that people really want to see are celebrity babies. That's where the money is these days. But the vital open flow of capital in our national celebrity baby picture market is being threatened by OK! magazine's blatant pandering and deep pockets. Can we accept a bunch of sleazy, credulous Brits winning the first $15 million-plus baby picture auction? It staggers the mind! Here is the nature of the threat:

Megamillionaire investment banker and New York magazine owner Bruce Wasserstein (currently under attack from our advertisers) is reportedly getting divorced from his wife (#3) Claude, and taking up with "a young Asian beauty with whom he may already be planning a family." The scandalous tale of wealth, sex, and power will be splashed all over New York magazine next week, in Imaginary World. In the actual world, you probably won't be reading about it there. More interesting than the rich-guy divorce story, though, is the angle that the gossips are hinting at oh-so-delicately: What's the deal with all these old super-rich moguls hooking up with younger Asian women these days? Interracial dating amongst the rich, incredible and noteworthy!:

Mariah Carey has gotten us through tough times with her song "We Belong Together." That's why it's so unfortunate to see her unwittingly star in the worst Photoshop job we've seen in a long time. "Her New Body," exclaims the Elle cover line. It certainly is! It's not even hers. Sure, she slimmed down—but not that much, as you'll see from our photo gallery. Also: her head has been re-attached to her body crookedly, making her resemble a Bobblehead. Come on, Elle: it's like you're not even trying. The many Photoshop horrorshows trotted out before the magazine-buying public is astounding for two reasons.

Is America ready for a Real World cast member to serve in Congress? Don't worry, it's just Kevin, from season one! Back then Kevin Powell was sporting a high top and being the serious guy in the New York house with Heather B and the southern girl and the model guy and the other guy. Now, Powell has shaved his head and declared his candidacy for Congress from Brooklyn. And if young people can't relate to this guy, all hope for political engagement is lost. Observe Powell's stellar set of pop culture credentials:

Magazines. No one reads 'em. But they just keep getting printed out and piled up on coffee tables and on top of tied-up stacks of newspapers that will sit in the back mudroom waiting to be taken outside for years and years. What can we do with all this unused paper, other than burn it for warmth when the end times come? Someone is turning them into pretty decorative bows! The bows are hand-fashioned from pages of Wired, Vanity Fair, Discover and other lonely ignored periodicals. They're pretty cool and are on sale here. [Animal NY] (Speaking of magazines, has anyone seen the redesign of Entertainment Weekly? Blech.)

Remember how Vogue had everyone in a tizzy this spring over its covers? First there was the LeBron James/King Kong cover in April, then the horrific Photoshop job on Gwyneth Paltrow in May. For all the damage the disastrous fronts did to the fashion title and its editor Anna Wintour, one would have at least hoped for a slight circulation bump from all the publicity. Not so: Newsstand sales of the LeBron James issue were off 100,000 copies year-over-year to 350,000 while the Paltrow issue sold 45,000 fewer copies. Sad. [WWD]

Good news and bad news. The bad news: The New Yorker has made yet another cartoonist uncomfortable by running a cartoon eerily similar to his work. The good news: This time the culprit is not Harry Bliss! Bliss, you'll recall, is the New Yorker cartoonist who came under fire twice in May, once for an uncredited "homage" to comic book illustrator Jack Kirby, duplicated for the magazine's caption contest, and once for a near-perfect facsimile of a cartoon by John Rau. The cartoon above and to the right is also for the New Yorker's caption contest, drawn by Paul Noth. The Wall Street Journal's health blog noticed it looks just like a Cleveland Plain Dealer cartoon from more than two years ago, above and to the left. Here's what the cartoonist had to say:

Condé Nast confirmed tonight it will shutter Golf For Women magazine, seven years after buying the Golf Digest spinoff from Meredith Corp. Ad pages were off 7 percent through the July issue and there's been significant turnover on the business side. Meanwhile, also at Condé Nast, Men's Vogue is looking gaunt. Is the magazine brand spinoff an endangered species? After all, a variety of teen-themed brand extensions threw in the towel on the concept two years ago, including Teen People.

The feel-good issue of Italian Vogue featuring all black models in honor of Obama is about to hit the newsstands, washing away the last remnants of racial strife in the world. But some people are asking: why do they have to do the all-black issue during the slowest time of the year for magazines? Why not put it out in the busy season and really make a statement? We hate to even suggest it, but could it have something to do with... money?

Writes author Tom Wolfe on New York magazine's late founder, Clay Felker: "One afternoon I came by to see Clay at his Xanadu on 57th Street and found him sitting at a desk going through a date book to put together some income-tax data. 'Look at this,' he told me, riffling through the date book, 'I only ate dinner at home eight times last year!' I don't think I can adequately convey the pride he took in this discovery. He had developed night vision for detecting new styles of life." [NY Mag]

So, David Carr has gone and pulled the curtain back a bit on Fox PR-the single most vicious PR operation in all the media. Good for him. So let's do our part by zeroing in on the one flack who is the face of Fox's feared, vengeful media relations operation. Her name is Irena Briganti. She's the female alter ego and mouthpiece of Fox boss Roger Ailes (pictured). She's been described as bubbly and charming in person. But she's the one holding the bloody hatchet that Fox regularly brings down right on reporters' heads. Here's everything you need to know about the scariest flack in mediadom:

Men's Vogue, launched in 2005, doesn't appear to be doing so well! The magazine has been getting thinner and thinner lately. Fashion mags have always been a reflection of the carefully curated "personal style" of their staff—which is where Men's Vogue writer, former gossip columnist, and jailbait-dater Hud Morgan comes in! Here's a composite of his recent fashion choices (some sent by secret tipsters.) We can only conclude that both Hud and the magazine need a makeover.

The ranks of Glamour dating bloggers are nothing if not distinguished. There was tardblogger Alyssa Shelasky, whose dim-witted adventures in wannabe social climbing were amply documented here. Then there was dudeblogger Mike Cherico, fired for being a womanizing jerk who sparked an insurrection in the Glamour.com comments. Now there's Erin Meanley, pictured, who just debuted with a post about being 29 and not having a husband, already. Sigh. An even more ominous sign: In an email to friends, reproduced after the jump, Meanley explains that, now that she's a dating blogger, "I need some help with pimpage. Set me up!" Well, at least she's being honest, somewhere, about the transactional aspect of her "dating." We've redacted Meanley's email address, but no doubt she'll be combing the comments here for top-shelf prospective mates, so feel free to make like a pimp there.

Elle magazine has more internal drama at its website than one fashion website deserves! Elle.com is perhaps Hachette's most visible site, so its success is an important totem for the company to prove it knows how to do digital things right. But after some ballyhooed comings and goings at the site that have been noted here over the past month, media types are wondering whether Hachette is planning a total restart of its online properties. Well, even more new turnover at Elle.com could mean just that!