Magazine Covers: Nursing Mom vs. Gay President

So, the two big national magazines are fighting a circulation war with "wow covers" now. TV viewers are used to this -- it happens during ratings periods or sweeps periods. During sweeps TV entertainment programs have their big plot blowups or twists, and the TV news stations roll out their big "investigations" and special project reports.

Time and Newsweek are doing battle in much the same way as the TV news. One has a cover story about nursing moms and motherhood and features a nursing mom -- an attractive nursing mom too -- nursing a three year old and not an infant. That was for shock value.

The other has just come out with a cover photo of President Obama calling him the first Gay President even though he is not Gay. If the cover had said "the first environmental president" or "the first space president" or "the first micro-technology president" no one would notice.

But being Gay is controversial. Being an environmentally inspired person, or being interested in space exploration, or pushing for the development of micro-technology isn't -- though there are probably some opponents of each.

So now, the fireworks will come over the phrase "the first gay president." If the headline had read "the first liberal progressive and defender of human rights in the 21st century president" probably it wouldn't have caused as big a stir. Is it good journalism, or slanted journalism, or yellow journalism, or anti-gay journalism?