Thoughts & Commentary on the Obama Administration

[Xiahou]

Reagan.

Do you have any data supporting that? The Pew Study only goes back as far as Clinton. If you have something else, I'd like to see it.

Please Xiahou, I know you are smart enough give me a legitimate argument on why Obama is so far a failure. There is so much you can choose from without bringing up this media blame game again.

If I remember correctly, the counter to Republican complaining about Bush's media coverage was that the press is always adversarial. So far, the Obama administration has bucked that trend.


I'd be much happier if Obama did have an intellectually curious media that was willing to ask probing questions instead of heaping praise on Michelle's fashion sense or writing dozens of articles about the Obama's date night.

The author of the second story I linked, Robert J. Samuelson, is no partisan hack either. Maybe you should give the article another look before dismissing it.

Are his proposals practical, even if desirable? Maybe they're neither? What might be the unintended consequences? All "reforms" do not succeed; some cause more problems than they solve. Johnson's economic policies, inherited from Kennedy, proved disastrous; they led to the 1970s' "stagflation." The "war on poverty" failed. The press should not be hostile, but it ought to be skeptical.

Mostly, it isn't. The idea of a "critical" Obama story is one about a tactical conflict with congressional Democrats or criticism from an important constituency. Larger issues are minimized, despite ample grounds for skepticism.

[a completely inoffensive name]

If I remember correctly, the counter to Republican complaining about Bush's media coverage was that the press is always adversarial. So far, the Obama administration has bucked that trend.


I'd be much happier if Obama did have an intellectually curious media that was willing to ask probing questions instead of heaping praise on Michelle's fashion sense or writing dozens of articles about the Obama's date night.

The author of the second story I linked, Robert J. Samuelson, is no partisan hack either. Maybe you should give the article another look before dismissing it.

But there has not been an intellectually curious media for quite a while now. Everything has been mostly partisan talking points for at least the past decade.

So the media is mostly favoring Obama because they are liberal, so what. That's what news is nowadays, talking heads giving opinions not facts.
(I fully expect that first sentence to be used by itself, out of context.)

When you are expected to provide criticism about the Obama administration, I expect a diagnosis of the flaws within the man's policies not the failures of the news industry to provide an unbiased story.

And I have read Robert J. Samuelson, I actually read his articles frequently in Newsweek. I don't particularly care for him ever since he wrote an article defending lobbying/lobbyists: http://www.newsweek.com/id/174283 (just in case anyone is interested).

Now, the second half of CR's post was what I was looking for (oddly enough CR's posts consistently seem to be interesting to me, just like in a previous gun control debate). A take on his economic policies with a reference to history to provide strength and credibility.

Unless you blame the cause of the media's love of him to be manipulation from the Obama's administration, I think venting about it belongs in a thread about the epic failures of modern journalism not about the Obama Administration itself.

[Xiahou]

Well, you probably won't appreciate this clip either then. It's the assistant managing editor of Newsweek talking about how Obama is like a god.

And I have read Robert J. Samuelson, I actually read his articles frequently in Newsweek. I don't particularly care for him ever since he wrote an article defending lobbying/lobbyists

I don't want to wonder too far off topic, but he's right.

[a completely inoffensive name]

Well, you probably won't appreciate this clip either then. It's the editor of Newsweek talking about how Obama is like a god.

Meh, I never even heard of that guy. I like Jon Meacham who is the head editor and has been on the Colbert Report a couple times. I heard his book about Andrew Jackson, "American Lion" was very good. Unless you have an embarrassing clip of him, I don't really care, like most media I don't have a high expectation unless they prove themselves unbiased and capable.

[Alexander the Pretty Good]

You're stuck between a rock and a hard place Xiahou. If you're holding up the press under Bush as a non-compliant political force, I'll point out that it didn't slow him down all that much (more's the pity). If you think that the media under Bush was compliant then there's nothing really to complain about - it's nothing new.

[Xiahou]

You're stuck between a rock and a hard place Xiahou. If you're holding up the press under Bush as a non-compliant political force, I'll point out that it didn't slow him down all that much (more's the pity).

And then I'd point out that's not the point. The media doesn't force an elected official to do anything- what it does is help in shaping opinion and, occasionally informing the public. This is a problem if much of what they're printing is uncritical cheerleading.

If you think that the media under Bush was compliant then there's nothing really to complain about - it's nothing new.

If you bothered to read preceding posts you'd see that contention has been studied by Pew and was not found to be accurate. I'm not really seeing the catch 22 or rock/hard place or whatever you're calling it.

[Alexander the Pretty Good]

What's your point then? The media either thinks Obama is god or the antichrist, depending on whether you've flipped to MSNBC or Fox. It doesn't affect reality.