Councilman Miguel Martinez holds up a cover of The New Yorker, featuring a satirical image of the Obamas. Community and religious leaders joined Martinez at the Conde Nast building to express their disgust at the what they consider a tasteless joke. (Anne Shreffler/WNYC)

NEW YORK, NY July 15, 2008 —Fall out over the cover of the July issue of The New Yorker magazine continues.

The magazine's editor, David Remnick, says the caricatures of Barack and Michelle Obama were meant to satirize the racist attacks and misinformation against the couple.

But State Senator Bill Perkins says he doesn't think it's funny.

PERKINS: It was offensive to the values that New Yorkers have, it was offensive to the values that Americans have, and it is beyond just an insult.

REPORTER: Perkins, and other politicians and community leaders, gathered outside the headquarters of Conde Nast.

They want the magazine's publisher to issue an apology. They say the cover will only reinforce the worst types of prejudices heard so far in Obama's presidential campaign.