For artwork to accompany my 2022 review of U.S. Rep. Lauren Boebert’s (R-CO) autobiography, the Colorado Times Recorder used a photo of her book, with little devil’s horns drawn on Boebert’s head in her cover photo.
Multiple people complained about the illustration, even readers who shared the review’s conclusion that the book is worthless.
One reader wrote that putting the horns on Boebert ran counter to our goal, stated on the Colorado Times Recorder’s (CTR) “About” page, of “vetting all [the] posts for accuracy and basic decency.” He said that our defacement of the book would be in his mind whenever he read future CTR articles.
Our response was that the art was acceptable for an illustration of an opinion article, labeled as opinion. We wouldn’t have put horns on Boebert for a news story on our progressive nonpartisan news site.
The horns were in keeping with her angertainment personality and the thoroughly unethical content of the book, which included serious misinformation and lies aimed at undermining democracy, public health, and more.
In other words, the book’s content was devil-horn-worthy and aligned with the review, which essentially concluded that Satan could have written the autobiography, titled My American Life.
Read the Review Here: I Thought Boebert’s Book Would Be Worthless, But I Reviewed It Anyway
But does marking up Boebert’s photo introduce a juvenile aspect that distracts from the facts and arguments in the review?
It’s true the defacement is fairly juvenile – and also potentially offensive to religious people and others.
But that’s the way it goes with opinions.
And, to the extent it matters, Boebert’s autobiography is much more offensive and juvenile than our horns on her book. If putting devil’s horns on Boebert makes more people read the review, learn about how awful Boebert is, and talk about it, the artwork’s juvenility was a sophisticated success.
Maybe we wouldn’t deface any book but Boebert’s.
I drew the horns, and I can tell you it felt kinda wrong to be drawing on a book cover. I’d be super selective in choosing another book to deface, if I ever do it again.
