‘Planet Hillary’: Clinton cover prompts critiques
The New York Times Magazine for this Sunday depicts former Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton as a bizarre-looking planet, inspiring quite a range of reactions.
The cover accompanies the story “Planet Hillary” by Amy Chozick, a look at the potential 2016 Democratic presidential front-runner. Clinton, who left her post at the State Department last year, has not confirmed that she will be revving up her second presidential campaign, though that hasn’t stopped supporters from raising funds and preparing for the campaign.
The magazine’s design director, Arem Duplessis, said in a blog post that the idea to turn Clinton into a disembodied celestial entity came to mind immediately, given her “influence on the various people within her political universe.”
The cover, created by illustrator Jesse Lenz, was inspired by the iconic illustration of the moon in the classic 1902 French film “Le Voyage Dans la Lune.” It underwent several revisions before Clinton wound up at the center of other politically-themed astronomic entities.
How our Hillary Clinton cover came about, with original sketches. https://t.co/vJ1P3QAkfR pic.twitter.com/dvyD0f8HwV— NYT Magazine (@NYTmag) January 23, 2014
The cover sparked the expected array of snark and parody across social media, though some, like left-leaning organization Media Matters, insinuated that the Times is giving Clinton an inordinately hard time, given its previous covers of political figures.
The New York Times Magazine is the second prominent cover Clinton has appeared on in the new year, with Time magazine representing her as a gigantic heel with the headline “Can Anyone Stop Hillary?”
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