# Has the media "turned" on Obama? **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [May 14, 2013, 4:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-the-media-turned-on-obama/658323 "2013-05-14T16:36:33Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![Hamlet](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hamlet/32/2818_2.png) [@Hamlet](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hamlet)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2013, 6:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-the-media-turned-on-obama/658323/61 "2013-05-15T18:07:24Z")
> [@Gyrate](#): > > You keep saying this, ignoring the fact that the media pretty much did squat during the Bush administration too. I wonder just how many people were really aware of the 13 embassy attacks during the Bush administration before they became the rebuttal to the Benghazi attacks. ---
**Author:** ![Zoe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/a4c791/32.png) [@Zoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zoe)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2013, 7:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-the-media-turned-on-obama/658323/62 "2013-05-15T19:33:40Z")
But the Conservation press has kept the President covered from the beginning: They were quick to claim that Obama had an alliance with the Muslim Brotherhood, they tried to use will power to arrange for Obama to have been born in Kenya. (The time machine was broken, I guess.) And let’s not forget their thorough coverage of Obama’s excessive concern for “the community.” Obviously, that made him a Socialist. Now we have all of these Socialists organizations like libraries, schools, the police departments, the fire departments crammed down our throats. And don’t forget his failure to make his college transcript available to news sources. (He may have been a little too humble about being the President of the Law Review at Harvard. That is a higher appointment than being the Editor of the Law Review.) How much coverage did the Conservative media give to the horror that Bush started a war on a country without any appropriate reason? I hope that there is a thorough and fair bi-partisan investigation into the DOJ and the IRS to see if there is any connection to Obama and to read the riot act to anyone responsible. I hope that it is televised from dawn to dusk. I hope that the DOJ had a very, very valid reason for eavesdropping. And maybe we can do some bi-partisan consideration of which of these acts deserved the talk of impeachment. Anyone remember Nixon’s Enemies List? **He personally** wanted people on his list harrassed by the IRS. That list include such monsters as Paul Newman and Bill Cosby. There is no indication from any source that Obama had an enemies list of organizations that he wanted to persecute. That may seem like ancient history to most of you, but for me it was the day before yesterday. ---
**Author:** ![DigitalC](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ebca7d/32.png) [@DigitalC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DigitalC)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2013, 7:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-the-media-turned-on-obama/658323/63 "2013-05-15T19:53:02Z")
The best part about this latest made up scandal is that the Republicans spent months attacking the white house over the leaks and DEMANDED an investigation. ---
**Author:** ![Damuri\_Ajashi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/898d66/32.png) [@Damuri\_Ajashi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Damuri_Ajashi)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2013, 7:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-the-media-turned-on-obama/658323/64 "2013-05-15T19:57:02Z")
> [@Grumman](#): > > He has actively protected torturers by prosecuting the whistleblower while refusing to prosecute the torturers - not even the one who destroyed evidence and then wrote a book gloating about it. His administration is the enemy of the Sixth Amendment, fighting for indefinite detention without trial and actively refusing a US citizen on US soil his right to counsel. He literally had an American child murdered by the CIA, and wants to retain the power to kill whoever he wants, wherever he wants, without oversight. > > He is, in short, an evil man. Yeah but there’s no popular outrage over that. We generally don’t care what happens to furriners. We stopped caring about torture as soon as Obama took office. And the 6th amendment only applies to criminal trials. IIRC, the bill of rights only applies to US citizens/residents and anyone that is on American soil (whether t6hey are citizens or not). If you’re a non-citizen/resident of the USA and you are not on American soil, the bill of rights does not apply to you. > [@Airbeck](#): > > Hmm, if only there was some way to prevent sales of guns to criminals. Perhaps some sort of ‘check’ or way to ‘track’ these kinds of sales. Hmm … Yeah, we already have that, its called the NICS system. Its got some holes in it but we do have a background check system in place. > [@](#): > > Then its good that this didn’t happen. Liberal groups were scrutinized too. In fact the only group in this process that actually faced any consequences was a liberal group. > > cite: [http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-05-15/irs-sent-same-letter-to-democrats-that-fed-tea-party-row.html?alcmpid=politics](http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-05-15/irs-sent-same-letter-to-democrats-that-fed-tea-party-row.html?alcmpid=politics) The IRS admitted to improperly focusing on words like “tea party” in screening applications for higher scrutiny. The fact that other organizations also received scrutiny, the fact that this was not the ONLY filter does not make the use of an impermissible filter acceptable. If cops were pulling over all black drivers as well as all white drivers that are speeding and driving drunk, it would not be a defense that the cops were also pulling over white drivers even if only white drivers ended up getting arrested. ---
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2013, 8:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-the-media-turned-on-obama/658323/65 "2013-05-15T20:06:30Z")
> [@Damuri\_Ajashi](#): > > We stopped caring about torture as soon as Obama took office. In “our” defense, that’s because he stopped doing it. ---
**Author:** ![Procrustus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/procrustus/32/2994_2.png) [@Procrustus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Procrustus)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2013, 8:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-the-media-turned-on-obama/658323/66 "2013-05-15T20:12:12Z")
> [@Damuri\_Ajashi](#): > > The IRS admitted to improperly focusing on words like “tea party” in screening applications for higher scrutiny. The fact that other organizations also received scrutiny, the fact that this was not the ONLY filter does not make the use of an impermissible filter acceptable. I know apologies don’t fix everything, but this whole thing was disclosed by the IRS, was condemned by the IRS and President Obama, and people said it was wrong and they were sorry. That should take some of the sting out of any scandal. It’s not like these groups were imprisoned, or shot. They had to _answer a few extra questions_ (which may have been appropriate in any case). I don’t think our liberty is in jeopardy. ---
**Author:** ![Airbeck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/airbeck/32/6574_2.png) [@Airbeck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Airbeck)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2013, 8:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-the-media-turned-on-obama/658323/67 "2013-05-15T20:23:41Z")
> [@Damuri\_Ajashi](#): > > The IRS admitted to improperly focusing on words like “tea party” in screening applications for higher scrutiny. The fact that other organizations also received scrutiny, the fact that this was not the ONLY filter does not make the use of an impermissible filter acceptable. > > If cops were pulling over all black drivers as well as all white drivers that are speeding and driving drunk, it would not be a defense that the cops were also pulling over white drivers even if only white drivers ended up getting arrested. You said, and I quote, - “Its wrong to only question the conservative organizations about it.” That didn’t happen. They didn’t ‘only question conservative organizations’, so that’s why I corrected you, because what you said was wrong did not actually happen. I’m not saying that the IRS was totally in the right on this whole deal, but your characterization of what happened was overly simplified and seemingly an attempt to exaggerate the issue. We will have better debates if people stick to what actually happened rather than exaggerating things to try to increase the outrage factor. ---
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2013, 8:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-the-media-turned-on-obama/658323/68 "2013-05-15T20:27:00Z")
> [@Procrustus](#): > > I know apologies don’t fix everything, but this whole thing was disclosed by the IRS, was condemned by the IRS and President Obama, and people said it was wrong and they were sorry. In between, the acting head of the IRS lied about the thing occurring. ---
**Author:** ![Procrustus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/procrustus/32/2994_2.png) [@Procrustus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Procrustus)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2013, 8:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-the-media-turned-on-obama/658323/69 "2013-05-15T20:37:36Z")
> [@Marley23](#): > > In between, the acting head of the IRS lied about the thing occurring. Ok, fire that guy then. And everyone who knew he lied and did nothing. scandal over. ---
**Author:** ![elucidator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8edcca/32.png) [@elucidator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elucidator)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2013, 8:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-the-media-turned-on-obama/658323/70 "2013-05-15T20:46:11Z")
> [@](#): > > …There’s just one minor problem: the exact purpose of the IRS office in question IS to look at political groups. Specifically, to weed out purely political groups that promote or oppose candidates from obtaining a tax status that’s supposed to go to nonprofit educational organizations. The crime of the IRS agents in Cincinnati? They were doing their job. > > But what about the specific targeting of Tea Party groups? Doesn’t that show that this was all just a witch hunt against groups with right wing ideologies? Uh, no. It came up at exactly the time the office was getting flooded with a bunch of hastily prepared applications spewing from the Tea Party’s messy birth. The edict went out expressly because the office was being flooded with a bunch of hastily prepared, clearly political, applications all using very similar terms. In fact, the entire group of IRS employees in question was created to address the influx of possibly political applications. If the office had suddenly received a hundred applications for exempt status all claiming to be from the Sierra Club, wouldn’t you want them to pay a bit more attention? I would. What if those applications had all been from groups using Muslim Brotherhood in their titles? Would the same pundits still be on the air screaming about the IRS getting all political? > > Behind all this are the staggering numbers. Out of thousands of applications, only a handful were rejected. You know what happens while a nonprofit organization is waiting to get this approval? They get to operate as a nonprofit organization. The harm caused by this action is exactly zero, and exactly no groups have sued the IRS in response to their rejection. They simply amended the application and tried again… > **[The IRS "scandal" — all smoke, no fire](https://www.dailykos.com/story/2013/05/15/1209313/-The-IRS-scandal-all-smoke-no-fire?detail=hide)** > > The media has gone into high boil over the actions of a handful of IRS employees in Cincinnati. The IRS is deliberately targeting political groups! They even admit it! Can impeachment be far behind? Yeppers, _Daily Kos_. Lefty cooty prevention protocols advised. ---
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2013, 8:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-the-media-turned-on-obama/658323/71 "2013-05-15T20:47:20Z")
> [@Procrustus](#): > > Ok, fire that guy then. And everyone who knew he lied and did nothing. scandal over. That guy is already gone, but the point is that you can’t really say “look, they informed you about the scandal and they apologized” while omitting the fact that they lied about it for (I think) about a year. It undermines the openness and the value of the apology just a little bit. And the Inspector General’s report says the IRS has made some changes it needs to make to prevent this kind of thing from happening, but it hasn’t made all of them. ---
**Author:** ![adaher](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/dec6dc/32.png) [@adaher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/adaher)\ **Post date:** [May 16, 2013, 1:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-the-media-turned-on-obama/658323/72 "2013-05-16T01:07:06Z")
Dana Milbank just rips into the President: > **[Opinion | President Passerby](https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/dana-milbank-obama-the-uninterested-president/2013/05/14/da1c982a-bcd7-11e2-9b09-1638acc3942e_story.html)** > > Obama seems to want no control over his administration’s actions. Late Monday came the breathtaking news of a full-frontal assault on the First Amendment by his administration: word that the Justice Department had gone on a fishing expedition through months of phone records of Associated Press reporters. And yet President Obama reacted much as he did to the equally astonishing revelation on Friday that the IRS had targeted conservative groups based on their ideology: He responded as though he were just some bloke on a bar stool, getting his information from the evening news. In the phone-snooping case, Obama didn’t even stir from his stool. Instead, he had his press secretary, former Time magazine journalist Jay Carney, go before an incensed press corps Tuesday afternoon and explain why the president will not be involving himself in his Justice Department’s trampling of press freedoms. * * * Reuters correspondent Jeff Mason asked how Obama felt about “being compared to President Nixon on this.” The press secretary laughed. “People who make those kinds of comparisons need to check their history,” he said. Carney had a point there. Nixon was a control freak. Obama seems to be the opposite: He wants no control over the actions of his administration. As the president distances himself from the actions of “independent” figures within his administration, he’s creating a power vacuum in which lower officials behave as though anything goes. Certainly, a president can’t know what everybody in his administration is up to — but he can take responsibility, he can fire people and he can call a stop to foolish actions such as wholesale snooping into reporters’ phone calls. ---
**Author:** ![adaher](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/dec6dc/32.png) [@adaher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/adaher)\ **Post date:** [May 16, 2013, 1:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-the-media-turned-on-obama/658323/73 "2013-05-16T01:08:59Z")
That’s what I’ve been saying about him for years. He doesn’t perform the most basic functions of his job. He’s a campaigner, nothing more. ---
**Author:** ![adaher](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/dec6dc/32.png) [@adaher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/adaher)\ **Post date:** [May 16, 2013, 1:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-the-media-turned-on-obama/658323/74 "2013-05-16T01:18:11Z")
Eleanor Clift makes almost exactly the same argument: The picture that comes through of Obama is that of a leader buffeted by all these forces outside his control, at the mercy of a runaway administration. > **[‘Imagine the Story on Fox’–Jay Carney Holds On as Winds Buffet White House](https://www.thedailybeast.com/imagine-the-story-on-foxjay-carney-holds-on-as-winds-buffet-white-house)** > > With Obama ceding the stage, his press secretary tries to disentangle separate storylines knotting up into a tale of a White House gone wrong, writes Eleanor Clift. And I’m not familiar with these writers, but they make a slightly different point. If the running of an administration is going to be this influenced by politics, how can the President expect Americans to support his vision of activist government? > **[Obama's dangerous new narrative](https://www.politico.com/story/2013/05/obamas-dangerous-new-narrative-091390?hp=t2_3)** > > No one understands more vividly than he just how toxic his situation has become. ---
**Author:** ![elucidator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8edcca/32.png) [@elucidator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elucidator)\ **Post date:** [May 16, 2013, 1:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-the-media-turned-on-obama/658323/75 "2013-05-16T01:45:16Z")
> [@adaher](#): > > … how can the President expect Americans to support his vision of activist government? Because he won? ---
**Author:** ![Koxinga](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/4af34b/32.png) [@Koxinga](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Koxinga)\ **Post date:** [May 16, 2013, 2:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-the-media-turned-on-obama/658323/76 "2013-05-16T02:14:46Z")
> [@adaher](#): > > Dana Milbank just rips into the President: > > [http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/dana-milbank-obama-the-uninterested-president/2013/05/14/da1c982a-bcd7-11e2-9b09-1638acc3942e\_story.html](http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/dana-milbank-obama-the-uninterested-president/2013/05/14/da1c982a-bcd7-11e2-9b09-1638acc3942e_story.html) > > Late Monday came the breathtaking news of a full-frontal assault on the First Amendment by his administration: word that the Justice Department had gone on a fishing expedition through months of phone records of Associated Press reporters. > > And yet President Obama reacted much as he did to the equally astonishing revelation on Friday that the IRS had targeted conservative groups based on their ideology: He responded as though he were just some bloke on a bar stool, getting his information from the evening news. > > In the phone-snooping case, Obama didn’t even stir from his stool. Instead, he had his press secretary, former Time magazine journalist Jay Carney, go before an incensed press corps Tuesday afternoon and explain why the president will not be involving himself in his Justice Department’s trampling of press freedoms. > > * * * > > Reuters correspondent Jeff Mason asked how Obama felt about “being compared to President Nixon on this.” > > The press secretary laughed. “People who make those kinds of comparisons need to check their history,” he said. > > Carney had a point there. Nixon was a control freak. Obama seems to be the opposite: He wants no control over the actions of his administration. As the president distances himself from the actions of “independent” figures within his administration, he’s creating a power vacuum in which lower officials behave as though anything goes. Certainly, a president can’t know what everybody in his administration is up to — but he can take responsibility, he can fire people and he can call a stop to foolish actions such as wholesale snooping into reporters’ phone calls. I predict this to become a meme: [“Flauting Danger.”](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jtmbzJNPsaQ) Anyone handy with CGI? ---
**Author:** ![adaher](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/dec6dc/32.png) [@adaher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/adaher)\ **Post date:** [May 16, 2013, 3:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-the-media-turned-on-obama/658323/77 "2013-05-16T03:11:55Z")
> [@elucidator](#): > > Because he won? He won by running a relentlessly negative campaign, not by articulating a positive vision of government. It takes more than winning an election to get your way. Ask George W Bush about the effort to privatize Social Security. “I have political capital, and I intend to spend it.” Well, he spent it, got nothing. ---
**Author:** ![adaher](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/dec6dc/32.png) [@adaher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/adaher)\ **Post date:** [May 16, 2013, 3:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-the-media-turned-on-obama/658323/78 "2013-05-16T03:20:03Z")
Besides, the President has to show that he can actually implement the things he advocates, rather than being a passive bystander. The health care law will be a big test. If things go badly and he points fingers everywhere but at himself, his Presidency is going to be finished. ---
**Author:** ![elucidator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8edcca/32.png) [@elucidator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elucidator)\ **Post date:** [May 16, 2013, 3:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-the-media-turned-on-obama/658323/79 "2013-05-16T03:26:45Z")
Perhaps you will be so kind as to advise us when that moment arrives. I don’t want to do the whole sackcloth and ashes thing until you tell us you are sure. ---
**Author:** ![adaher](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/dec6dc/32.png) [@adaher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/adaher)\ **Post date:** [May 16, 2013, 3:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-the-media-turned-on-obama/658323/80 "2013-05-16T03:28:13Z")
You’ll know. It’ll be when you give up defending him like so many liberal journalists have. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-the-media-turned-on-obama/658323.md?page=3) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-the-media-turned-on-obama/658323.md?page=5)