in the wrong era. Soundly refuting
liberals online since 2000. NOTE: That is NOT
me pictured at left. :)
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Audacity of Truth
"Diplomacy":
"People are saying what in the world is going on with North Carolina, we look like Mississippi." - NC Gov. Bev Perdue (D) on the passage of Amendment One, 5-11-12
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.
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Well, this could mean only 1 of 2 things:
1. Finally he gets it! The MSM is completely clueless and Fox News is the only fair and balanced news organization in the U.S.!
OR
2. He’s been taking political pointers from Hugo Chavez.
What he dislikes is how easy the Internet makes it to get past the “official line.” .
Absolutely, Anthony. God help anyone who dares to want to know more than just the “official line.”
Obama believes he should be controlling the stream of information.
Wait a second, weren’t we told that Obama was the first president to have his own Blackberry and that he was oh-so-cool because of it? But now he says he doesn’t even know how to work an iPod?
He is an idiot. Where are the jobs ????? who cares what he thinks.
So the smartest man in the entire recorded history of the earth doesn’t know how to use everyday electronics that your average teenager masters overnight.
BTW – remember how the mediots ridiculed George H.W. Bush as out of touch because he didn’t understand how a bar code scanner works? Want to bet they don’t think TOTUS is out of touch because he can’t work an iPod?
I’ll believe the “information as a distraction” meme when the White House folds their tents on Tweeter and Facebook.
“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,”
Yes, we’ve all noticed that a lot of what is being spoon-fed to us is not that high on the “truth meter.”
Nearly everything that comes out of Duh-1′s mouth, or out of the mouths of his sycophantic lackeys (Fibbs, Axelcrap, Eric “book ‘em, Danno” Holdup, Rahmbo, etc.), or out of the mouths/pens of the MSM, can be said to be “not that high on the truth meter.”
So, with that in mind, sir, do you plan on doing anything about it in the next 2-1/2 years you’ve got left in your all-too-long but single-term presidency, like telling the truth (even just once in a while)?
And BTW, a good start would be getting rid of the socialist/anarchist dupes who believe it’s their destiny to rule the world, who typically teach the mushminds that happen to either qualify as affirmative action students (another way of saying they’re not smart enough to make it without extraordinary help, i.e., they as a class of people aren’t as good as the rest of us) or are too busy frying their brains to really think! Like the UCLA prof who actively advocates the violent overthrow of our government? Seems to me that if you really wanted a nation ruled by law you could start with prosecuting treason and sedition as defined by those laws.
And let’s not forget how the Maobama administration tried to control the information on health care with their own flag@whitehouse.gov snitch line.
Bottom line, these people are all about control. Barry himself doesn’t like our own Constitution because of its limits on government. He hired an FCC commie in Mark Lloyd and the list goes on.
Amen to that, Carlos.
GWR, great point. I also remember how the O campaign ran a nasty ad against McCain about how he was “behind the times” because he didn’t know much about computers and email, when the reality was that his war injuries prevented him from being able to use a keyboard comfortably.
To my knowledge, they never apologized for that ad.
Him and his band of blockheads are the only threat to democracy. They run around spewing their venom and stir the pot every chance they can get. I just don’t understand how a president has the time to spit and spew when there is so much actual work to be done.
Obama and his minions are the real threats to our Constitutional Republic, not the massive smorgasbord of information that we can access any time we please.
I’ve been trying to have a civilized debate with some self proclaimed educators in the NEA’s forum, LINK, and regardless what proof is displayed with links, quotes, video or audio, nothing seems to make an impression.
What BO needs is to make these “educators” into his “truth squad” and beat the inquisitiveness out of all students. Then no amount of proof will ever leave a mark in their minds.
Oh, for those days of yesteryear, when people didn’t text, search, email or blog during the day…………..but rather simply watched, slack jawed, “One Life to Live” in the afternoon and then bought everything Dan Rather said hook, line and sinker on the evening “news.”.
Bottom line? If it ain’t TOTUS, it don’t count. And since no one else gets to use TOTUS, no one else counts, either.
BTW, his “I don’t know how to use them” line is just one more lie to a list of Duh-1′s that grows daily, frequently hourly and sometimes by the minute.