OLD Media Moves

Bloomberg Businessweek apologizes for cover

February 28, 2013

Posted by Chris Roush

Dylan Byers of Politico is reporting that Bloomberg Businessweek has apologized for a cover on the real estate market that some deemed racist.

Byers writes, “‘Our cover illustration last week got strong reactions, which we regret,’ Josh Tyrangiel, the magazine’s editor, wrote in a statement sent to POLITICO. ‘Our intention was not to incite or offend. If we had to do it over again we’d do it differently.’

“The cover depicted minorities in a house, drowning in cash. The headline: ‘The Great American Housing Rebound: Flips. No-look bids. 300 percent returns. What could possibly go wrong?’

“Slate blogger Matthew Yglesias, who otherwise praised Businessweek as ‘a genuinely great magazine,’ described it as ‘racist.’

“‘The idea is that we can know things are really getting out of hand since even nonwhite people can get loans these days! They ought to be ashamed,’ Yglesias wrote on his blog.

“The Atlantic’s Emily Badger wrote, ‘[W]e still can’t decide what’s most offensive about it: the caricature of the busty, sassy Latina, the barefooted black man waving cash out his window, that woman in the upstairs left-hand corner who looks about as dim-witted as her dog?'”

Read more here.

Subscribe to TBN

Receive updates about new stories in the industry daily or weekly.

Subscribe to TBN

Receive updates about new stories in the industry.