Five Controversial Magazine Covers

As Time creates a stir with the image on its latest issue, The Mark recalls some other covers that attracted coverage.

In the latest issue of Time magazine, editor Rick Stengel has included a note to pre-empt criticism of the cover, which portrays an 18-year-old Afghan woman sentenced by the Taliban to have her nose and ears cut off for fleeing her abusive in-laws. "Our cover image this week is powerful, shocking and disturbing ... I apologize to readers who find the image too strong," wrote Stengel.

It’s not the first time a magazine cover has raised eyebrows and an editor has had to justify a decision. Of all the controversial covers that have hit newsstands over the years, here are five that – for one reason or another – are memorable.

July 2008: The New Yorker’s Obama Caricature

Satirical or incendiary? The New Yorker caused a stir with a caricature of Barack and Michelle Obama in the Oval Office, he in Muslim attire and she in military fatigues; a U.S. flag burned in the fireplace while Osama bin Laden looked on from a painting on the wall. Both Obama’s and John McCain’s campaigns slammed the cover as “tasteless and offensive.” The New Yorker said the cover meant to satirize "the use of scare tactics and misinformation in the presidential election to derail Barack Obama's campaign."

April 2008: The Vogue “King Kong” Cover

Basketball star LeBron James was the first black man to grace the cover of Vogue, but to many the cover image didn’t represent progress. The photo of six-foot-nine James baring his teeth and gripping supermodel Gisele Bundchen’s tiny waist drew comparisons to imagery of King Kong and actress Fay Wray. One magazine analyst argued that Vogue was deliberately attempting to bring out “black-man-wanting-white-woman” stereotypes. A Vogue spokesman responded that the magazine merely “sought to celebrate two superstars at the top of their game.”

November 2009: A Sexy Sarah on Newsweek

To coincide with the release of Palin’s book Going Rogue, Newsweek ran a photo of Palin from a shoot for fitness magazine Runner’s World. Among other critics, Palin denounced the magazine’s choice, calling the shot irrelevant, out of context, and sexist. Newsweek’s editor John Meacham said, "We apply the same test to photographs of any public figure, male or female: does the image convey what we are saying? That is a gender-neutral standard."

July 1994: A Darkened O.J. on Time

In July 1994, after Simpson was arrested for allegedly murdering his wife Nicole and her friend Ron Goldman, Newsweek and Time both ran the same mug shot; but while Newsweek used an unaltered version, Time took some artistic liberties with the photo, darkening and blurring Simpson’s features. Critics charged that the Time version was a racist and prejudicial attempt to make Simpson look more “guilty,” prompting managing editor James R. Gaines to issue an apology and explanation. “One could argue that it is racist to say that blacker is more sinister,” Gaines wrote. He added that the photo had been manipulated to depict Simpson as “an icon of tragedy.”

August 1991: A Nude and Pregnant Demi Moore on Vanity Fair

When a seven-months-pregnant Demi Moore posed on the cover of Vanity Fair wearing nothing but diamonds, some newsstands refused to carry the issue, while others concealed it in brown paper wrappers. Editor Tina Brown said the cover intended to portray “a new young movie star willing to say, 'I look beautiful pregnant,' and not ashamed of it.” Moore said, “You’re either sexy or you're a mother. I didn't want to have to choose, so I challenged that."