Obama's TV viewing habits

By Ed Lasky

Politico has a story on Barack Obama's TV diet. He seems to devote an amazing number of his waking hours to watching the boob tube:

President Barack Obama can't stand to be without his "Entourage."

Call it a guilty pleasure, or maybe it just rings familiar to him. The HBO series about an aspiring actor features a fast-talking agent named Ari, based on the real-life brother of Obama's chief of staff, Rahm Emanuel.

For less R-rated fare, he tunes into "Hannah Montana" or "SpongeBob SquarePants" in the White House with his daughters. Aides said he would have watched Monday night's NCAA championship on TiVo on his way home from Iraq Tuesday night.

Jon Stewart's smackdown of CNBC's Jim Cramer? Obama was eager to see it. But when it comes to the real news, and not the fake kind, Obama takes a pass - rarely ever tuning into 24-hour cable chatter or replays of his own performances.

"We usually tell him how we think he did," said longtime friend Valerie Jarrett.

In some ways, it's a TV diet that doesn't seem so different than many American men's, featuring a heavy dose of sports, including that staple of the channel-surfing set, ESPN's "SportsCenter."

His favorite apparently is Entourage, which idolizes the lifestyle of a group of guys who look upon women as sexual playthings, and whose main character, an actor, has his entourage of people who depend on him for their room and board. In other words, they do not seem to have much of a work ethic and such "work" as they do involves play acting in Hollywood.

Yet, our President would delay meetings to view this show and talk about it all the time.

Obama's Press Secretary says they talk about Entourage all the time. All the time? How about policy, national security concerns? Entourage -- which I watch -- is puerile. Having watched the show for years now, I can say there is not much to talk about. We are not talking Shakespeare.

I have the time for 30 minutes of such guilty pleasure. Then again, I am not President; nor did I ever run for President during which I would be boning up on the responsibilities of the office. I would not postpone meetings to watch or talk about Entourage -- as Barack Obama has.

And always basketball... yes, sports are so important as we face economic turmoil and national security threats.

President Bush was roundly derided for not reading newspapers (such as the New York Times) but Barack Obama gets a pass for "steering away from the news".