Obama on electronic media devices: “Information has become a distraction”
The AFP reports on some unintentionally revealing comments President Obama made yesterday to graduates at Hampton University in Virginia:
HAMPTON, Virginia — US President Barack Obama lamented Sunday that in the iPad and Xbox era, information had become a diversion that was imposing new strains on democracy, in his latest critique of modern media.
Obama, who often chides journalists and cable news outlets for obsessing with political horse race coverage rather than serious issues, told a class of graduating university students that education was the key to progress.
“You’re coming of age in a 24/7 media environment that bombards us with all kinds of content and exposes us to all kinds of arguments, some of which don’t always rank all that high on the truth meter,” Obama said at Hampton University, Virginia.
“With iPods and iPads and Xboxes and PlayStations, — none of which I know how to work — information becomes a distraction, a diversion, a form of entertainment, rather than a tool of empowerment, rather than the means of emancipation,” Obama said.
He bemoaned the fact that “some of the craziest claims can quickly claim traction,” in the clamor of certain blogs and talk radio outlets.
“All of this is not only putting new pressures on you, it is putting new pressures on our country and on our democracy.”
Obama, who uses the handful of Commencement addresses that he delivers each year to meditate on societal developments broader than the minutiae of everyday politics, warned the world was at a moment of “breathtaking change.”
“We can’t stop these changes… but we can adapt to them,” Obama said, adding that US workers were in a battle with well-educated foreign workers.
“Education… can fortify you, as it did earlier generations, to meet the tests of your own time,” he said.
Uh, yeah – but only when that “education” steers you in a left wing direction, of course, as is so frequently the case at colleges and universities all over the country.
As a refresher, let’s not forget that this is the same guy who, during the 2008 campaign season, called any digging into his record and reporting of it that displayed him in a negative light a “distraction” from the “real issues,” so his remarks yesterday to the Hampton U grads aren’t exactly surprising, but they do represent another layer peeled off in terms of how the President views different types of information and from where that information comes.
Jammie Wearing Fool unloads:
So according to the community organizer, freedom of opinion and diversity of thought is a threat to democracy.
Ironically, last week he urged graduates to read the Huffington Post, as if they don’t ever have crazy claims or rank that high on the truth meter.
Obama and his media lackeys control probably 98% of the “news” we get but that’s just not enough. Without 100% control of the “information” we get this whiny pissant just cannot be happy.
Let’s also not forget the fact that the administration is very selective with who it gives “insider access/info” to: Typically the types of MSM journalists who promise not to publish information relevant to today’s news because they want the big scoop for their upcoming book(s), basically the types of journalists who practically sell their souls in order to get the insider view of a lifetime. Not only that, but let’s also not forget what media types the Obama administration prefers to (literally) break bread with, sometimes in “off the record” chit chats: Left wing bloggers, journalists, columnists, and commentators, sympathetic-to-the-admin RINO “bi-partisan” opinionators like David Brooks, and “conservative” poseurs like Andrew Sullivan.
Something else to remember: At Obama’s televised first official presser as President, two far left liberals sat in the front row: Sam Stein from the Huffington Post – a guy who believes the Bush administration should be prosecuted for war crimes, and Ed Schultz – an unstable far left character, formerly of talk radio infamy, who shortly after Obama’s presser joined the cast of left wing crazies over at the administration’s preferred network MSDNC. Stein was called on by Obama to ask a question.
The conservative media at that presser, or any other? No where to be found. And if there, certainly not called upon. Then again, it has been a while since the President has had a formal presser. Not only that, but we know how Obama feels about the conservative media anyway (“You can’t just listen to Rush Limbaugh and get things done.”). We also know how he feels about mainstream media news outlets that are perceived to have a conservative slant, too.
I’d be a little more prone to believe the President was truly concerned about information from ALL sources if he and his administration hadn’t so carefully tried to control the “message” in various ways including who the “message” was reported to over the last year and a half, what networks the “message” was being delivered to, as well as who was delivering the “message” on behalf of the administration – namely the notorious liars that comprise the Axelturf/Rahmbo/Fibbs axis.
If Obama had just been complaining about information overload in general, I would have agreed wholeheartedly with him. The 24-7 news cycles and the insta-access of information on the Internet sometimes leads to almost trivial, dead horse beating discussions of various hot stories, but taken in limited doses – which is the way I prefer to watch the news nets and browse news sites and blogs – it’s actually ok. But what Obama was talking about here was not really “information overload” but rather the types of information you receive, and where you get it from. Apparently left wing and left leaning sources of “news” information are ok, no matter the widespread disinformation they’ve been spreading for decades, but “right wing” news outlets, columnists, commentators, and bloggers – all places that have tried to level the information highway playing field by factchecking the MSM and giving the other side of the story on all issues – are sources to avoid like the plague.
Gotcha.