In the month of September, the conservative (and Spanish-language) media (and from a few rogue reporters at ABCNews) reported a number of stories about President Barack Obama all showing his disinterest in or ambivalence toward governing. And yet, outside those pockets at ABC and occasionally on CNN), our legacy media all but ignored (or otherwise downplayed) these stories which called Obama’s competence into question.
By the end of the month, a number of pundits and bloggers, including a Democratic pollster, commenting on the media’s negligence, had scored them for promoting the president’s reelection and undermining the national interest, with Charles Krauthammer suggesting the media should just “relocate to Chicago” given that they’ve all but become “‘an auxiliary of the Obama campaign”.
In both interviews with and news reports about Obama, authors, journalists in Spanish-language media, a late night talk show host and those occasional “rogue” reporter, revealed a man more focused on his reelection than on the job to which he was elected four years ago. And our friends in the legacy spent more time following up on Mitt Romney’s supposed “gaffes” than they did on these very real examples of Obama’s incompetence:
- The release of the Bob Woodward book showed Obama disinterested in the give-and-take that is part and parcel of negotiating with Congress.
- The president jetted off to a campaign event in Las Vegas the day after the attacks on our embassy in Cairo and the murder of our ambassador in Libya.
- In an interview with David Letterman, Obama failed to identify the amount of the national debt.
- He dissembled on immigration reform in the Univision townhall, blaming Republicans for his failure when his party controlled Congress for the time period in question (his first year in office); Obama neither introduced such reform legislation nor did he provide a framework within which Congress should work, nor did he press Congress to act.
- In that same townhall, the Democrat “falsely claimed that the [Fast and Furious] program began under President George W. Bush.” There has been almost no legacy media followup on the Department of Justice Inspector General’s report on the gunrunning scandal, a report which calls into question the managerial competence of Attorney General Holder and reminds us that some in the administration did not cooperate with investigators.
- He descrribed increasing violence in the Middle East, including the murder of our Ambassador to Libya” as “bumps in the road.” And that’s just one of his “gaffes” in the administration’s jumbled response to those attacks.
- When in New York to address the United Nations, he chose to go in the View where he described himself as “eye candy”, but failed to meet with world leaders in the Big Apple for the opening of the the world body.
Given the events of this past month, it’s no wonder conservatives have been scratching their heads about Obama’s continued strength in the polls.
UDPATE: Some in the legacy media may be getting the message. Take a gander at some of the tough questions NBC’s David Gregory asks of Obama advisor David Plouffe — and the lame, talking points he offers in response.
You have a typo in the 2nd paragraph.
Did I catch it?
“Charles Krauthammer suggesting the media should just relocate to Chicago…”
The ash heap of history is more like it. They’ve earned a place there, as well as our abiding contempt.
You are so right. It is not that we are depressed. We are amazed at the pure corruption of the press. They are not just biased, as they have been for decades, they are actually an unpaid (That we know of) organ of the Democratic party. As bad as it was in 2007/2008 it is now far worse and these media outlets are about to cause a Marxist takeover of this once great country . I am still optimistic that the people of the U.S. see through these propagandists, but that is what is keeping people up at night. They know that when the lies are this blatant and we still lose, the game is over. When the press says that 1+1=456 and the majority can’t see through the lie, then game over, they win and we lose the greatest country the world has ever known. Vote early and often!
Durable good orders were horrific in September. Second quarter GDP was only 1.3% growth. Three more numbers come out before Election Day. Third quarter estimated GDP in the fourth week of October, and employment numbers for Sept and Oct this week and in four weeks. Bad numbers should doom Obama, but who knows with this dumb electorate, aided by the leftie media.
But… but… Republicans are mean, and stuff.
Obama is disengaged in the performance of his Constitutionally mandated official duties? I am so relieved to hear this as some of us have been concerned that he could be ADD or even our first Black gay President. Come to think of it, he hasn’t been on the golf course much, lately. I worry about his overall health, he looks to have lost weight in recent months.
This is why our nation is doomed.
That the media does this, and is able to do this, is reflective of the public as a whole which allows it to happen.
The media overtly and dishonestly promotes one candidate, one party, and one group of political ideologies, and the American people let them get away with it.
Regardless of who wins the presidency in November, we as a nation are screwed because we as a nation have abandoned our duty to ourselves and to the truth.
I have only one objection to this otherwise dead-on observation: You (and just about everyone these days) misuse the word “disinterested.” What that means is: Having no personal investment or stake in a matter, i.e., standing outside it and thus capable of objectivity. What Obama is, is “uninterested”; i.e., he doesn’t give a dang.
Thank you for entertaining this bit of pedantry, and keep on doing what you do.
Thanks for the post – the media have gone way beyond parody during this cycle. It’s hard to see how they get their credibility (what little they had of it) back. Appalling is too weak a word for their negligence.
You’ve found the typo.
The Obama campaign should be sending the MSM paychecks. They are better for his campaign than his press secretary.
What amazes me the most is if any of this stuff had happened to Bush or any GOP sitting president the press would be constantly hammering him with the stories.
Here the press mostly just yawns and goes off to search for a new Romney gaffe to cover.
Just heading off to campaign after the Libya attacks on the consulate killing the ambassador and 3 others would have been a constant hammer to beat the president with. The press just yawned.
The press sucks.
Not just the press but organizations like the NAACP. If a white POTUS had African-American youth unemployment numbers this high for this long, the NAACP would be screaming from the roof tops. Sharpton would be trying really hard to put together a sentence that actually made sense.
Not just the press but organizations like the NAACP. If a white POTUS had African-American youth unemployment numbers this high for this long, the NAACP would be screaming from the roof tops.
This is absolutely right on.
I remember when unemployment rates were really good during Bush’s years and the MSM and various liberal groups would scream and holler about the uncounted people who had given up on finding work.
Unemployment is awful and has been awful for his entire presidency and after there are a large number of the unemployed who have given up on looking.
There are also a large number of people who lost jobs during the Obama years who have taken lower paying jobs or jobs that require less skill because they couldn’t find anything equivalent. Not too much news coverage on this, where they harped on Bush his whole presidency.
‘Experience is a harsh teacher,
for she gives the test first, and
the lesson afterwards.’
How do we know THEY’RE NOT?
I don’t remember that. What I *do* remember is that liberals would sneer that they were all McJobs. Now, however, if you bring up the low unemployment of the Bush years, the meme is that they were all public sector jobs. HUH???
Sorta like kids in America today. They’re either all starving in the streets or fat asses who need to be starved by Moochelle. Which is it?