We’ve detailed how NewsBusters insists on putting the words of conservatives in their proper context, but if you insist on putting, say, President Obama’s words in context, you’re simply making excuses for the guy.
NewsBusters keeps up that double standard in a Jan. 30 post by Kyle Drennen that pretty blatantly takes Obama out of context. Under the headline “Not Very ‘Interesting’: ABC and CBS Morning Shows Ignore Obama Gaffe,” Drennen writes:
While NBC correspondent Peter Alexander noted on Tuesday’s Today how “Republicans are jumping on the president’s choice of words” in telling a woman her husband’s long-term unemployment was “interesting” to him, neither ABC’s Good Morning America nor CBS’s This Morning bothered to highlight Obama’s aloof flub.
[…]Why isn’t [CBS’ Bob] Schieffer’s mind boggled when President Obama seems puzzled by the plight of average Americans?
In fact, Obama said no such thing. Obama said that it was “interesting” that a questioner’s husband could not find a job after three years of being unemployed because he was described as a high-tech engineer whose skills are in demand. Here’s the full transcript of the exchange:
QUESTIONER: Hi, Mr. President. My husband has an engineering degree with over 10 years of experience, and he was laid off over three years ago and has yet to find a permanent job in his field. My question to you is: Why does the government continue to issue and extend H-1B visas when there are tons of Americans just like my husband with no job?
OBAMA: Well, Jennifer, I don’t know your husband’s specialty, but I can tell you that there’s a huge demand around the country for engineers. Now, obviously, there are different kinds of engineers. So a civil engineer, for example, right now may not be getting as much work because we’re not building our infrastructure as much as we should, which is part of the reason why in the State of the Union I said let’s put folks to work — not just construction workers but also engineers and architects, rebuilding our schools and our roads and our bridges and so on. Where you’re seeing a lot of specialized demand is in engineering that’s related to the high-tech industries. And now, what industry tells me is that they don’t have enough highly skilled engineers. If your husband’s in that field, then we should get his resume and I’ll forward it to some of these companies that are telling me they can’t find enough engineers in this field. So it’s going to vary, but as a basic matter, there’s a huge demand for engineers around the country right now
QUESTIONER: I understand that. But how — I mean, given the list that you’re getting, I mean, we’re not getting that. You said in the State of the Union address for business leaders to ask themselves what can they do to bring jobs back to America. But why do you think that the H-1B program is so popular with the corporations?
OBAMA: Jennifer, can I ask you what kind of engineer your husband is?
QUESTIONER: He’s a semiconductor engineer.
OBAMA: See, it is interesting to me — and I meant what I said. If you send me your husband’s resume, I’d be interested in finding out exactly what’s happening right there, because the word we’re getting is that somebody in that kind of high-tech field, that kind of engineer, should be able to find something right away. And the H-1B should be reserved only for those companies who say they cannot find somebody in that particular field. So that wouldn’t necessarily apply if in fact there are a lot of highly skilled American engineers in that position. I’d be interested — I will follow up on this, because I’m interested in finding out, and maybe we can get some information as to why your husband has been having trouble getting placed. We want to encourage more American engineers to be placed, and that’s part of the reason why it’s so important to us to boost American manufacturing.
Only at NewsBusters and its parent Media Research Center would offering to help someone find a job be considered a “gaffe” and a “flub.”