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{"id":16635,"date":"2012-06-25T07:00:36","date_gmt":"2012-06-25T12:00:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.occasionalplanet.org\/?p=16635"},"modified":"2013-02-03T08:46:52","modified_gmt":"2013-02-03T14:46:52","slug":"state-of-the-news-short-on-context-long-on-hype","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/occasionalplanet.org\/2012\/06\/25\/state-of-the-news-short-on-context-long-on-hype\/","title":{"rendered":"State of the news: Short on context, long on hype"},"content":{"rendered":"
Recently we heard Norah O\u2019Donnell, White House correspondent of CBS News, state that President Obama has been unsuccessful in advancing his domestic agenda. The implication was that either he did not have a clear agenda or, that if he had one, he didn\u2019t care about transitioning it from theory into action legislation. She went on to relate how Mitt Romney was blaming the president for \u201cnot getting it\u201d and being clueless about the importance of jobs in order to jump-start the American economy.<\/p>\n
Being a White House correspondent for one of the three big broadcast networks is not a frivolous job. If you\u2019re going to speak about what\u2019s going on in the White House, then you had better speak with accuracy and in context. While you\u2019re not the president\u2019s spokesperson, you are the spokesperson for the press secretary. In President Obama\u2019s case, press secretary Jay Carney answers questions from reporters such as O\u2019Donnell, and she communicates the questions and answers to the viewing public.<\/p>\n
There are two words that lead to poor coverage. The first is self-aggrandizement. If you watch CBS\u2019s coverage, the network will focus primarily on the questions of its own reporter. In the case of CBS, that is\u00a0 O\u2019Donnell. The other broadcast networks and cable stations follow the same technique with their own reporters. If a reporter asks a frivolous question, a bland one, or a \u201cgotcha\u201d one, then we the public are not going to learn anything, unless the president goes beyond the confines of the question and chooses to supersede the reporter to give real news. But since most presidents prefer to limit what they reveal to reporters and the public, this rarely happens.<\/p>\n
The second problem is context. Frequently the reporter will present a superficial explanation of supposedly what is happening, but it is isolated from the larger picture.\u00a0 O\u2019Donnell indicated that President Obama had failed to pass his legislative agenda. It may be true that much legislation that is important to him has not become law. However, she totally failed to mention that nothing can become law without being passed by Congress. It is not President Obama\u2019s allies who are preventing economic stimuli, extended benefits for the unemployed, and reform of financial institutions from becoming law. It is hardly a novel idea that Republicans will do anything to prevent the President from getting a legislative victory. If the president proposed a bill that clean air is healthy for our respiratory systems, Republicans would object on the grounds that he is promoting a permissive way of life.<\/p>\n
Ms. O\u2019Donnell and others are free to say that the president\u2019s legislative agenda is stuck. But it is thoroughly irresponsible for her to fail to state that he has no power beyond using the bully pulpit and trying to build a 60% mandate among the American people. With 48 Republicans in the Senate out of 100, that just is not going to happen in this atmosphere.<\/p>\n