the kicker

Flip Through The Years, with Palin and Fey

February 9, 2010

The Magazine Publishers of America and the American Society of Magazine Editors have jointly produced a neat little video that retells the story of the 00′-10′ decade via magazine covers.

Some are eerily prescient, like the ESPN Magazine that features a baby faced Yao Ming alongside the tag line “He’s Next,” or the February 2000 People cover asking if Britney Spears was “Too Sexy Too Soon.” That’s the benefit of a retrospective, I suppose.

I especially love the odd resonance that the videomakers found between two very famous covers of two very famous and closely-linked women: Tina Fey and Sarah Palin’s turns on Vanity Fair (Jan ’09) and Newsweek (Nov ’09).






Especially amazing, because it has to be coincidental. As you may remember, the Newsweek photo was actually taken by a photographer on assignment for Runner’s World. Still: both photos are flag-draped and leggy with the right-knee-cocked. The Fates are winking.

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Clint Hendler is the managing editor of Mother Jones, and a former deputy editor of CJR.