PrintNovember 17, 2008
Howard Kurtz Discovers Obama worship in the press
What makes this piece by Howard Kurtz so remarkably stupid is that he is supposed to be the media critic for the Washington Post and he never saw this kind of slavish devotion to Obama during the campaign?
Where has this guy been for a year? This is SOP for the Obamamedia. In fact, I would say that they are more constrained after the election than they were in the run up to the vote.What's troubling here goes beyond the clanging of cash registers. Media outlets have always tried to make a few bucks off the next big thing. The endless campaign is over, and there's nothing wrong with the country pulling together, however briefly, behind its new leader. But we seem to have crossed a cultural line into mythmaking."The Obamas' New Life!" blares People's cover, with a shot of the family. "New home, new friends, new puppy!" Us Weekly goes with a Barack quote: "I Think I'm a Pretty Cool Dad." The Chicago Tribune trumpets that Michelle "is poised to be the new Oprah and the next Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis -- combined!" for the fashion world.
Whew! Are journalists fostering the notion that Obama is invincible, the leader of what the New York Times dubbed "Generation O"? Each writer, each publication, seems to reach for more eye-popping superlatives. "OBAMAISM -- It's a Kind of Religion," says New York magazine. "Those of us too young to have known JFK's Camelot are going to have our own giddy Camelot II to enrapture and entertain us," Kurt Andersen writes. The New York Post has already christened it "BAM-A-LOT."
Kurtz asks, "But aren't media people supposed to resist this kind of hyperventilating?" Gee, Howie. Ya think? Maybe if you had done your job during the campaign rather than criticizing people for bringing up Wright, Ayers, and the rest of Obama's questionable friends, you would have seen how incredibly dangerous this worship is getting. Obama will be able to do no wrong and anyone who says differently will find themselvces fighting off charges of racism, or of trying to divide America, or any number of false accusations.
Reap what you've sown, my friend.
Hat Tip: Ed Lasky
