Conservatives were not surprised when Time magazine published a cover story on Ted Cruz with an extreme close-up of the Republican. The photo included a headline wondering, “Likable Enough?” The picture was so zoomed in that it included stray eyebrow hairs. Well, the Onion also anticipated this. Back on March 23, 2015, the satire site prognosticated, “‘Time’ Magazine Subscribers Brace For Inevitable Issue With Close-Up Of Ted Cruz’s Face.”
Time journalists even ran a story about the Onion correctly predicting their cover. In a statement to the magazine’s website, the Onion mocked Time: “We look forward in the weeks and months ahead to subsuming your publication’s market share and draining whatever relevance it may still possess.”
The original Onion piece chided, “In response to the Republican senator from Texas announcing his presidential candidacy, Time magazine subscribers told reporters Monday that they are bracing for the inevitable issue featuring a close-up of Ted Cruz’s face.”
Time’s actual front-page story, for the April 18 issue, predictably insisted Republicans face a “painful choice” with the “hated” Cruz. Washington bureau chief Mark Scherer wrote, “It was something to see when the most hated Senator in Washington began to sound like the Great Unifier for the Grand Old Party.”
Cruz's cover is reminiscent of Newsweek's awkward Michele Bachmann cover.
