Media: The Media is Awesome
George Stephanopoulos thinks the press should take a bow for itself:
The president hit his marks tonight. So did the White House press corps. [...] Just about all of the questions were pointed and challenging, and just about every journalist worked in a follow-up. That’s new, and welcome.
Once again, whether in hardball mode or in softball mode, the world of mainstream political journalism reveals itself to have no idea of how to distinguish important issues from trivial ones. We got no questions last night about the administration’s bank plan, none about its financial regulatory proposals, none about the forthcoming Afghanistan policy review, and really nothing about the suffering of the American people in a time of distress. Instead, the press seemed mostly to have picked up on the fact that congressional Republicans are complaining about the deficit, so they asked some questions about the deficit. It didn’t really occur to anyone that the press conference might be a good time to raise the issues that aren’t being chewed on every ten minutes on cable.
In turn, confronted with predictable political challenges a president who’s backed by a skilled team was able to parry them effectively. It’s a well-played game by both sides, but did anyone learn anything? Was the session effective in educating the curious about major problems and the merits and shortcomings of the administration’s approach to them? I don’t really see it.
38 Responses to “Media: The Media is Awesome”
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March 25th, 2009 at 9:51 am
the press seemed mostly to have picked up on the fact that congressional Republicans are complaining about the deficit, so they asked some questions about the deficit.
This is what’s known as “balance.” If the reporters asked their own questions or raised other issues beyond what the Republicans were speaking about via their talking points memos, then the press would be accused of “bias” and “making themselves the story.”
Many on the right, who have so completely badgered many members of the press into submission, are up front about their belief that the press should only serve as a conduit for relaying quotes from others. Insofar as the press has internalized this belief, they believe that by raising issues cribbed exclusively from Republican talking points, they are doing their job.
March 25th, 2009 at 9:54 am
It’s a quandry how you “go after” someone in an aggressive, pointed fashion and continue to get called upon in press conferences or granted interviews in the future. If you continually piss in the punch bowl at parties soon you don’t get invited to parties. I’m not privy to whether he’d even conduct one but is it any wonder Sy Hersh isn’t granted 30 minutes alone, on camera, with Cheney, Bush, Obama or anyone else that might be adverse to an inconvenient, acidly intellectual grilling? Instead we get fawning, softball yakfests with David Gregory.
March 25th, 2009 at 9:58 am
So, do your tags do any good when you misspell them? Assuming you don’t misspell them the same way each time?
March 25th, 2009 at 9:59 am
The headline pretty much nails it.
That press conference was a striking example of the inherent phoniness in contemporary “hardball” journalism. Most of the reporters from major media outlets simply took the opposition’s talking points, framed them as questions, and dared the President to answer them. Since the President is not an idiot, he has carefully prepared to respond to this type of question with his own talking points. Thus, we end up with lame political kabuki theatre in which rival political ads masquerade as serious journalism.
The only worthwhile questions came from the armed forces press and the Spanish-language media. To be fair, though, the Fox News question was so blindingly insane that it had entertainment value. And the best moment came when Obama smacked down the idiotic conspiracy-tinged question about why he waited several days to publicly discuss the AIG bonuses.
March 25th, 2009 at 9:59 am
from the times’ caucus blog:
If you could catch him in an unguarded moment over a couple beers, the foreign leaders part might have been an interesting question. But was there any doubt as to what the answer would be? Obama could handle that one in his sleep.
March 25th, 2009 at 9:59 am
Remember when G-Steph was a voice in the wilderness, crying out about the complete absence of responsible journalistic inquiry in the run-up to the Iraq Invasion?
Me neither. Wanker.
March 25th, 2009 at 10:00 am
Yeah, pretty much worthless. And Obama even gave most of them two shots at it.
March 25th, 2009 at 10:02 am
Thanks WordPress. I didn’t really want that comment anyway.
March 25th, 2009 at 10:04 am
I think that in this time of national significance, the press should sacrifice by forcing itself to ask useful questions about a full range of issues that matter for the future. After things have improved, they can go back to asking repetitive gotcha questions.
March 25th, 2009 at 10:05 am
It’s a pitiful spectacle, but if they want to continue to make it so easy for Obama to look good by asking utterly predictable “gotchas” he could handle in his sleep, that’s OK by me. He doesn’t need them to communicate with voters, he has his own filter-bypassing communication strategies.
March 25th, 2009 at 10:05 am
I think the press is just now getting around to asking the questions that they should have been asking the last President. Where was the question about sacrifice when we were going to war in Iraq? Where was the question about deficits when the Bush WH inherited a surplus and turned it into budget busting deficit. Now they realize that these would have been really good questions so they are trying them out even though they no longer fit the context.
March 25th, 2009 at 10:07 am
Now that the Republican talking-points-machine is so incompetent, I wonder if they will start demanding that the press start engaging in independent work and thought of their own.
March 25th, 2009 at 10:15 am
Gee, do you think the fact that the ObaBots pre-selected questioners and vetted questions had anything to do with the choreographed farts from the ObaLiar-in-Chief?
March 25th, 2009 at 10:19 am
The best questions (and most important answers) of the night came from Univision, Ebony, Stars and Stripes, and AFP. The worst questions came from NBC and CNN.
The president’s strategy of reaching out to less insider media was validated just by who asked the best questions.
And, to be honest, the Fox News guy had a good question hidden within all the rhetorical traps about socialism, communism and Obama’s image. If he had kept it straight and not tried to land a right-wing pundit punch at the same time he asked about international financial coordination, it may have been one of the best questions of the night.
March 25th, 2009 at 10:28 am
I think boz may well be right: if the national press is going to pursue this sort of narrowly process-oriented narrative, there’s little reason for the President to buy into the notion that they’re any more “serious” than an outlet like Stars and Stripes — which is actually interested in policy, albeit a narrow slice of policy.
This actually cheers me up a good deal, because it suggests that someone in the WH has thought intelligently about the problem of the media “filter.”
March 25th, 2009 at 10:36 am
Problem was, it was hidden from HIM, too- he is so ignorant that he totally misinterpreted China’s musings about a new RESERVE currency (though there’s nothing new there- remember way back when that was supposedly going to be the Euro?- so that’s really not such a great question either) as pertaining to some demented wingnut fantasy about a “world currency”. And by the way, that was an official Republican talking point, already tried out at the Geithner / Bernake hearing by that wingnut’s wingnut, Rep. Bachmann.
March 25th, 2009 at 10:44 am
Could there have been more on the banks, better questions from the networks, etc? Yup.
But once again, he’s being an adult. If the kids want to ask stupid questions, well, they’ll get tired of that eventually. He’s waiting for them to catch up, and giving them the opportunity to do it.
Also, he demonstrates the long view — not playing to the news junkies who need their fix.
March 25th, 2009 at 10:54 am
To be fair, George S.’s congratulatory assessment of his fellow Washington press corps member’s performance may not be widely shared by the rest of that bunch. I watched Charlie Rose after the press conference last night and he had on about 6-7 of those folks (Gwen Ifill, Jackie Calmes, etc), and they all agreed that the questions were pretty awful.
March 25th, 2009 at 11:00 am
First off the Fox News guy looked kind of scary and pissed off too.
It was sort of a “when did you stop beating your wife question,” as in Mr. President since you personally screwed up the economy and aren’t up to the challenge, why is even Communist China questioning our currency? Also, why is even Socialist Europe pushing back on your request to spend more? Implying Obama is even more Socialist than Europe. Quite a piece of surrealist theater.
Obama gave an impressive response while resisting the temptation to get all professorial.
He could have said China and the US are now in a symbiotic relationship. One goes down, they both go down. This is a point I think leftists miss about the relationship. So yeah it’s easy to mock the US for being indebted to China, but China needs the US consumer market until it starts paying it’s labor force more.
I think China is just warning Obama and the Democrats, don’t go China-bashing on us about currency manipulation and the like.
March 25th, 2009 at 11:01 am
Gee, do you think the fact that the ObaBots pre-selected questioners and vetted questions had anything to do with the choreographed farts from the ObaLiar-in-Chief?
Wow. Obama called on two military journalists and a Fox News reporter, and handed them all a microphone on live TV. Do these facts enter into your analysis, or do they just bounce off the tinfoil headgear and careen off into space?
March 25th, 2009 at 11:17 am
Well, just look at the “analysis” today around DC. GS is not alone. The analysis is more about Obama’s unexciting press conference, use of a teleprompter, not calling any major newspapers and the back & forth between the press.
That’s the press’s analysis. It is all about them.
The MSM is having an incredibly difficult time adjusting to a new admin doing things in a different way. All the while, the country has shifted below their feet.
Is the press had their way, Obama’s ratings would be in the 30’s. Instead, America puts him in the 60’s.
March 25th, 2009 at 11:21 am
Obama did evade a few things, but he basically did a great job. I have to say that I felt a little sorry for him, in an institutional sense. I am just Some Guy, and *I* could barely stand to watch the press conference; teevee ‘reporters’ are such fucking idiots. Nobody intelligent should have to go through that sort of thing.
March 25th, 2009 at 11:25 am
Or the fact that one reporter was clearly surprised by being called and that both she and Obama commented on her surprise?
Wingnuts is so stupid.
March 25th, 2009 at 11:28 am
Can US democracy survive the worthless heap of stinking crap this is our MSM?
March 25th, 2009 at 11:30 am
I find it hard to describe questions about a mythical global currency as “pointed and challenging.”
March 25th, 2009 at 11:35 am
“Well, just look at the “analysis” today around DC. GS is not alone. The analysis is more about Obama’s unexciting press conference, use of a teleprompter, not calling any major newspapers and the back & forth between the press.”
The Chicago Tribune’s headline today was “Obama seems less at ease.”
Maybe newspapers deserve to die.
March 25th, 2009 at 11:54 am
Telling is that reporters seem more interested in who got to ask questions than what was actually asked. Next presser look for “what’s your fave color?”
March 25th, 2009 at 11:58 am
Fortunately, the blogosphere is here, ready to respond to the media’s failings with a vigorous round of self-congratulatory circle-jerking.
March 25th, 2009 at 12:19 pm
mainstream political journalism reveals itself to have no idea of how to distinguish important issues from trivial ones.
That’s a little harsh, Matt, at least no one asked about baseball this time.
March 25th, 2009 at 12:31 pm
My take is the difference between the fawning Bush press corps and the obnoxious Obama press corps is that the fawning Bush press corps was afraid of Bush – afraid of retribution for not kissing enough ass. Obama has a much more open attitude toward these idiots, so as a result they ask what they consider “tough” and “pointed” questions. As for their brilliant follow-ups, most of them just re-asked the part of the question that Obama didn’t answer the first time. If they think they’re doing a great job, let them think it. It also has the advantage of giving people the impression that Obama is not afraid of tough questions. (He’s not, but it would be nice to see him answer some actual tough questions too.)
March 25th, 2009 at 12:58 pm
Rather than rocking slowly back and forth and whining like MattY, here’s how you can actually do something.
Special clip-out-and-paste-to-your-monitor note to “liberals”:
—– clip here ————–
– I’m not referring to MikeStark-style questions. –
—– clip here ————–
March 25th, 2009 at 1:03 pm
As the website blurb of the Daily Show might say, “Bush is no longer President but the press is STILL dumb as rocks!
March 25th, 2009 at 1:06 pm
Telling is that reporters seem more interested in who got to ask questions than what was actually asked. Next presser look for “what’s your fave color?”
Why wasn’t that relevant? I think it was, like when blogger Sam Stein was called on, even if it is all kind of staged.
March 25th, 2009 at 2:13 pm
Shut the fuck up, Lonewacko.
March 25th, 2009 at 2:39 pm
I’m confused. All of the major media outlets are talking about how Obama ignored reporters from major newspapers – WaPo, NYT, etc – in favor of correspondents from second-tier outlets.
How can the media have done an awesome job, when…HEY, WAIT A MINUTE!
March 25th, 2009 at 3:27 pm
“the blogosphere is here”
Aren’t you part of the blogosphere?
No, he’s located at an Archimedean Point outside the blogosphere.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Archimedean_point
March 26th, 2009 at 8:34 am
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