Monday, February 02, 2009

Powerline notices media actively ignoring Barack Antoinette narrative


Obama: "Let Them Eat Steak"

Is Barack Obama an insensitive lout who serves $100 per pound steaks to his elite guests and turns up the heat in the White House high enough to grow orchids while a million of his countrymen are without power and dozens are freezing to death? If not, why not?

Solely because that is not the story the media want to tell. Many on the web--but no one in the mainstream media--have commented on the fact that Obama has not even pretended to do anything about the massive ice storm that has disabled much of Kentucky and neighboring states. It took days for FEMA to swing into action. Why is that not a scandal? Days went by before Kentucky's governor called out the National Guard. Why did no one blame Obama for failing to call out the Guard sooner? Probably because he lacks the constitutional power to do so; but the Constitution hasn't changed since 2005.

The Anchoress has an excellent roundup. Glenn Reynolds has been on the story too. One of Glenn's readers writes:

What Katrina taught the media was that they could hurt Bush by lying. What 2008 taught them was that they could help Obama by not reporting at all. What will 2009 teach them? I shudder to think.

A basic reality of our time is that our mass media are monolithic, and what they choose to report (or not report) depends on what fits the narrative they are pushing on the public. If our reporters and editors wanted to portray Obama as clueless and out of touch with ordinary Americans, he has given them ample opportunity to do so. But because they are Democrats and he is a Democrat, they have no desire to tell that story. So "let them eat steak" is not a theme you'll be seeing on the evening news.

Most victims in Kentucky are white. Why isn't the media wondering aloud if Barack is ignoring this crisis b/c he doesn't care about white people? Forget wondering: why isn't the media flatly accusing him?

If 900,000+ black persons were in an ice storm for 7 days without power, if dozens of black persons had already died from exposure: Barack would be making a very public fuss. There's a race angle here. The true race angle is that media cover the complaints of poor black Americans much more than media cover the complaints of poor white Americans. Still, there's a race angle to be exploited, media love race angles, yet media are MIA on this.

Not to worry: if Barack's Presidency falters, media will discover the cause is racism by Repubs and by poll respondents.

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