The Media Research Center’s Obama Derangement Syndrome over the opening of his new library continued in a June 19 post by intern James Waterman:
Over the last few days, the focus of the media shifted entirely towards the grand opening of the Obama Center in Chicago. The grand opening made such a buzz that the media even forced themselves to slow down the endless abuse of the current president to instead focus on this obelisk of nostalgia constructed in honor of their beloved former President Obama. On this Friday’s CBS Mornings, co-host Gayle King and congressional correspondent Caitlin Huey-Burns defied the idea that CBS is now MAGA-coded and discussed their visits to the center’s opening ceremony with King in particular gushing over Obama’s use of the word “we.”
Of course, Huey-Burns immediately poked fun at Donald Trump for not being invited to the event:
[…]After getting their digs in against the sitting president, CBS began their adoring praise of Obama, marveling at the self-serving celebrations of the opening ceremony. Eventually, Gayle King brought up how moved she was by Obama’s allegedly brilliant orations:
[…]Gayle King, of course, is a very close friend of the Obamas, being a massive donor to the Democratic Party and going on vacation with the ex-presidential family herself. With that background, it’s unsurprising that she plays off this fairly basic quote by Obama as a rhetorical masterpiece.
This is, however, part of a greater movement by the media, especially CBS, to pass Obama off as some kind of “virtuoso” miracle child who is unifying and non-partisan. Being their only real political success in the last 20 years, without him the media have nothing to work off of. Of course, they could have more to talk about if they just dedicated themselves to fair news coverage, but that would undermine their whole goal as partisan organizations.
Speaking of which, will Waterman demand that his summer employer abandon its goal to be a partisan organization? Unlikely.
Nicholas Spinnato similarly huffed:
After the Obama Presidential Center’s opening on Thursday was met with loving coverage from most news outlets, Friday’s Morning Joe joined in fawning over the event. MS NOW reporter Nnamdi Egwuonwu called the event “jubilant” and even said he was “heartbroken” when he found tickets were sold out.
Co-host Willie Geist continued the love fest and was joined by Rev. Al Sharpton and fellow co-host Jonathan Lemire, who related the event to Juneteenth.
[…]Lemire then asked Sharpton a question that framed the Obama ceremony to the Juneteenth holiday and a “hope” that “the page could be turned from the Trump era.”
Sharpton responded with a seeming comparison of Juneteenth and the freedom of slaves to the impending possible end of the Trump era:
[…]From a reporter who left NBC News in the Versant divorce in order to stay with the now clearly progressive network, to all of Morning Joe fawning over the Obama center, MS NOW really could not contain themselves in their framing of Obama as an idol to their viewers.
The MRC has a bit of a thing against Juneteenth.
Alex Christy whined:
MS NOW aired a two-hour special hosted by Michele Norris with the presumptuous title of Hope Comes Home, which featured a tour of the new Obama Presidential Center and interviews with Barack and Michelle. During the show, Norris would suggest that if there was any real criticism to be made of Obama, it was that he was not left-wing enough, but the good news is that the American people “have inherited what President Obama likes to call the work.” She would also gush over Michelle’s “star power” and insist she is not merely “a style icon.”
[…]Later in the program, it was time for Norris to fawn over Michelle, “The former first lady has star power of her own, and her emergence on the global stage is also captured in the museum. The display of some of her standout dresses and gowns has already become a favorite with visitors.”
[…]The media treating the Obama Presidential Center as if it were some sort of holy shrine is simply the latest chapter in their history of Obama adoration. So much for speaking truth to power.
Waterman returned to complain some more:
Despite having been out of office for a decade, the media was still more than happy to turn all cameras towards former President Barack Obama once more. The grand opening of his new presidential center in Chicago brought myriad news companies to the site. On Friday’s Today, a segment on the Obama Presidential Center included a gooey interview between the former president and NBC co-anchor Craig Melvin.
Melvin would open the discussion by giving Obama an open ended question to pontificate about how profound visiting the Center would be for the public:
[…]Sounding very much like a real estate or travel agent, Melvin rattled off what visitors could experience: “It features a 225-foot-tall tower housing the Obama presidential museum, a public forum, a vegetable garden, plus green spaces and a branch of the Chicago public library where we spoke.”
The NBC journalist made sure to share with the former president how impressed he was with the facility:
[…]Obama can say this facility is not about nostalgia, but the liberal news networks can’t help but cling to their pre-Trump memories when he was president.
Jorge Bonilla joined the whine parade:
The Obama Presidential Center opened to much fanfare and media coverage last week. The Elitist Media devoted significant chunks of time to covering the new shrine built to their god-king. This devoted coverage spilled over to the Sunday shows.
[…]The center is a massive departure from normal presidential libraries, just as its underlying presidency was a massive departure from the norms of the office. But then, as now, an adoring media looks the other way and tells the American public that no- this is really awesome.
It is interesting that Brennan linked the Obama Center to discussion of DC landmarks. Coverage has been extremely critical, whether of the proposed Triumphal Arch, the White House Ballroom, or the work done at the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool. Obama Center coverage has ranged from deferential to worshipful, and has made ZERO mention of its subcontractors that are still owed tens of millions of dollars.
Bonilla didn’t mention Trump’s history of stiffing his contractors.
Clay Waters rehashed old grievances:
The opening of the brutalist Barack Obama Presidential Center in Chicago was cause for reflecting on his supposedly golden two terms of tolerance and “reaching across the aisle” on Friday’s PBS News Hour.
[…]Was Obama “reaching across the aisle” during his campaigns against his former election rivals McCain and Romney? In 2008, the Obama campaign ran an ad mocking McCain for not being able to send e-mail. The reason? McCain spent five and a half years as a P.O.W. in Vietnam under torture and lost full motion of his arms and hands, unable to comb his hair or tie his shoes, or yes, send an email (though eventually he learned).
Obama’s 2012 re-election campaign brought a false attack from an Obama-affiliated SuperPAC that tied Mitt Romney to the death by cancer of former steel worker Joe Soptic’s wife. Then-Vice President Joe Biden ranted to a mostly black audience that Romney would “put y’all back in chains.”
So much for “dignity of the office.”
We thought the election of Trump erased right-wing concerns about the “dignity of the office.” Apparently not.
Tim Graham devoted his June 22 podcast to whining about Obama:
Over the last few days, the networks have overflowed with gooey propaganda about the new Obama Presidential Center in Chicago. But the fakest news in the goo was claiming Obama’s career was all about unifying America.
NewsBusters Managing Editor Curtis Houck and MRC Director of Media Analysis Geoffrey Dickens revisit all the media adoration of the Obamas that began with the Democrat convention of 2004.
On Sunday, CBS Face The Nation host Margaret Brennan oozed “former President Barack Obama spoke of America’s resilience, and urged them to reject division and recommit to each other.” On Meet The Press, NBC’s Garrett Haake touted “a theme that would come to define his political career, bridging divides and finding common ground.”
Journalists love to pretend the Obamas were uniters, not dividers, and that during Obama’s presidency, it was an idyllic time of unity. That’s not true at all. It erases the conservative resistance to the Obama agenda. But the Obamas could sound less negative about their opponents because they trusted other Democrats and their allies in the media to be the attack dogs for them.
The elitist media aerobically pretends the Tea Party never existed, nor the IRS scandal where Obama’s bureaucrats suppressed Tea Party groups from seeking nonprofit status. Debacles like the four Americans killed at our consulate in Benghazi, Libya are airbrushed out. Obamacare is still a “signature achievement,” and don’t look at the actual results.
Every interview with the Obamas sounded like an infomercial, where they were asked how they felt about the wonderful center they built, and were told it was an amazing tour. All that was missing was a “get your tickets now” pitch.
Just because right-wingers like Graham actively refused to say anything nice about Obama — to the point where some of them refuse to even admit that he was president — does mean Obama wasn’t a uniter. Graham just got paid too well to abandon his right-wing anti-Obama narratives.