“No American president can survive if he lets Americans be beheaded on international television with impunity. Impunity! He has to strike back, as an American, it’s in our soul.” – Chris Mathews, MSNBC’s Hardball.
Chris Mathews of MSNBC’s Hardball criticized the president over his statement on the Foley beheading. (realclear politics photo)
Yes, the same Chris Mathews, who said after heading President Obama speak in 2008,”I felt a thrill going up my leg.” I doubt if the thrill has gone from the liberal Mathews, but his remarks on the James Foley beheading was said quite forcefully on air.
Columnist Maureen Dowd has had some unkind things to say about the president. (dentonrc.com)
“The extraordinary candidate turns out to be the most ordinary of men, frittering away precious time on the links,” wrote columnist Maureen Dowd, adding “… this is an ugly, confusing and frightening time at home and abroad, and the country needs its president to illuminate and lead, not sink into some petulant expression of his aloofness, where he regards himself as a party of his own and a victim of petty, needy, bickering egomaniacs.”
“Obama making fools of the media,” read a headline in The Washington Times that caught my eye, but it turned out to be old stuff. Columnist Joseph Curl summarized all of the White House scandals that have disappeared from the news, thanks to a disinterested media. “Say what you will about the president and his soulless team of sycophants, but they’re good. They know to play the media, which apparently doesn’t mind in the least being played,” Curl wrote.
Why more journalists haven’t opposed the president’s policies in print and on air can be summed up in one word – access; the fear of losing it.
“President Barack Obama is a master at limiting, shaping and manipulating media coverage of himself and his White House,” agreed Jim Vandehei and Mike Allen of Politico in a contributing piece for the blog Mario Murillo Ministries early last year. While they claim the liberal press doesn’t willingly and eagerly allow itself to get manipulated, and are often left scrambling for access to the Oval Office, they are mostly silent.
We are seeing some familiar names and faces leave the Washington media scene which could be a sign of frustration. Be aware that those covering the White House are obliged to follow the guidance of their publisher or network and cannot write or speak their minds at the risk of losing access.
Sharyl Attkisson, left CBS earlier this year having grown frustrated with what she saw as the network’s liberal bias as her reporting on the Obama administration was side-tracked and often not used. She is currently writing a book, tentatively titled, “Stonewalled: One Reporter’s Fight for Truth in Obama’s Washington.”
Diane Sawyer put Hillary Clinton on the spot in her interview. (abcnews.go)
Diane Sawyer of ABC-TV is stepping down; some say because of her interview with Hillary Clinton when she said regarding Benghazi, the people may be looking for a sentence from you beginning with the words, “I should have …” Clinton sidestepped the question.
David Gregory has left NBC-TV’s Meet the Press due to poor ratings. He recently referenced “a big, expansive terrorist threat that has been amassed” under President Obama’s watch.
I’m not sure how long Gregory’s replacement Chuck Todd will last. In June, following the release of an NBC/Wall Street Journal poll, Todd said it amounted to the public telling Obama is presidency is over, saying “This poll is a disaster for the president.”
The most recent reporter to announce she is leaving the White House press corps and retiring from ABC News was Ann Compton, who has covered every president since Gerald Ford. “The way the president’s availability to the press has shrunk in the last two years is a disgrace,” she said in the aforementioned Murillo blog piece.
Yes, we are seeing some key people leave for various reasons, but don’t look for a massive journalistic assault on the Obama administration. Eighty-eight percent of them contributed to Obama and other Democrats in 2008. Few people like to admit they were wrong.
The New York Daily News featured a smiling Obama on the golf course just minutes after his brief press conference on the beheading of James Foley while his parents were still grieving before the cameras.
