Canadian Commentator: The Press Gave America ‘An Untried, Unknown,’ ‘Incompetent Figure As President’
Maybe what America's press really need is a Canadian television commentator to explain how atrocious their coverage of Barack Obama has been since the moment he tossed his named into the presidential ring in February 2007. Although they may not be familiar with CBC's Rex Murphy, they should certainly heed the marvelous piece he wrote for the National Post Saturday entitled ” The Media’s Love Affair With a Disastrous President “: As the bad economic news continues to emanate from the United States — with a double-dip recession now all but certain — a reckoning is overdue. American journalism will have to look back at the period starting with Barrack [sic] Obama’s rise, his assumption of the presidency and his conduct in it to the present, and ask itself how it came to cast aside so many of its vital functions. In the main, the establishment American media abandoned its critical faculties during the Obama campaign — and it hasn’t reclaimed them since. Murphy then walked through some of the press's most egregious examples of malpractice: Gliding past Obama's pretentions Ignoring his arrogance Not reporting his gaffes Side-stepping his connection to Rev. Jeremiah Wright Trashing Hillary Clinton Burning Republicans Ransacking Sarah Palin and her family “Palin, in particular, stands out as Obama’s opposite in the media’s eyes,” wrote Murphy. “As much as they genuflected to the one, they felt the need to turn rotweiler toward the other.” After offering further examples of so-called journalists' unforgivable obsession with attacking the former governor of Alaska, Murphy gave his strongest criticism. “As a result, the press gave the great American republic an untried, unknown and, it is becoming more and more frighteningly clear, incompetent figure as President.” Murphy crescendoed to his spot on conclusion: “To the degree the press neglected its function as watchdog and turned cupbearer to a styrofoam demigod, it is a partner in the flaws and failures of what is turning out to be one of the most miserable performances in the modern history of the American presidency.” Almost on cue, “American Conservative's” Jim Pinkerton observed a few hours later on Saturday's “Fox News Watch” that some of Obama's enablers are starting to get it. “There’s a strange thing happening in the media which is, I think, liberalism has sort of concluded that Obama is kind of a turkey, and they're sort of trying to distance themselves from him.” They might try, but too many observers know the truth: the press aided and abetted this national disgrace, and they're going to have a lot to answer for in the coming years regardless of how much they try to distance themselves from the current White House resident. Hopefully more members of the foreign press will assist those of us in the States that have been sending out warning signals since February 2007. Maybe with their help, the media malpractice will be totally acknowledged by the guilty parties, and America will never have to witness such a disgraceful episode again. A conservative can dream, can't he?
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on September 18, 2011. Filed under