What...too soon?

So apparently President Obama paid a quick impromptu visit to the press corps area at the white house. When asked a serious questions about the relevance of his ban on lobbyists and his deputy defense secretary’s former work as a defense industry lobbyist…he got a little miffed. Too soon Mr. O? Honeymoon not over? I guess I’m not surprised at his response to the question…it was pretty hard hitting and quite observant on their part which is more surprising given how much they all fawned over him during the election. To be honest, it puts some of my worries aside, mainly the concern that the true role of the press as governmental watchdog was going away as they are all “in the tank” for obama. This is not to say, that we shouldn’t be mindful of media bias…it clearly exists (on both sides). On a side note…I object to the term…mainstream media bias. Because really, in the age of the internet…mainstream media hardly exists or matters anymore. Sure lots of people watch the evening news but lots of people listen to right wing radio…the fact of the matter is that people’s political views aren’t so much determined by the network the watch or the pundit the hear but rather by which arguments make sense to them. There are people on both sides of every issue that believe one thing or another for both good and bad reasons. They are idiots and geniuses that go both ways. So mainstream media doesn’t factor into the equation because idiots don’t change their minds much because they can’t understand the reason for doing so and smarter folk evaluate their sources. Furthermore, people always like to believe that they are in the majority and that its just a small group of stupid people that make it tough for all the sensible ones. Thus people look for news outlets that agree with them on the issues already because then they can avoid conflict. Conservatives listen to the radio and liberals watch Chris Mathews and Keith Olberman. Conservatives read the wall street journal and liberals read the new York times. Sometimes people cross over but its just because they WANT to be appalled. The point of it all is that we have both sides on these issues and as long as that is maintained then media of both persuasions will continue to be a watchdog for the government. In the end, that’s the point…just like we need the police to watch and make sure nobody robs our houses when we go to work…so do we need the reporters to watch the government when no one else will and make sure that they are always accountable to the people. Obama should work on making friends with these people because the honeymoon is going to be over quicker than he things and the times they are a changin’. Patrick OUT!!!

 

What I’m Listening Too: Bonnie Raitt

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