Home > Archives for Barack Obama
Sep
27
2012

Praising Obama's Defense of Free Speech, NYT Leaves Much Unsaid

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Barack Obama at the UN General Assembly (Africa Renewal)

The New York Times' September 26 coverage of Barack Obama's UN address on Arab democracy, free speech and violence included a good sampling of the distortions, double standards and bigotry often present in U.S. corporate reporting on these issues. Helene Cooper's news report (9/26/12) explained that Obama's speech was a "strong defense of America's belief in freedom of speech," challenging "fledgling Arab and North African democracies to ensure that right even in the face of violence." According to Cooper, Obama also "asserted that the flare-up of violence over a video that ridicules the Prophet Muhammad would not set off a [...]

Filed Under: Barack Obama, First Amendment, Mideast, New York Times Tagged With:
Sep
21
2012

Is the Afghan Surge Really Over?

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usat-surge

Misleading media reports today are announcing the end of the U.S.  troop surge in Afghanistan. USA Today:         And the Washington Post:   There are many more along the same lines. It's important to understand that the troop reductions are only part of the total troop surge that happened under Obama. As FAIR noted last year (Media Advisory, 6/23/11) there were two major increases in the number of U.S. troops in 2009: When Obama took office in 2009, the U.S. had about 34,000 troops in Afghanistan. Obama has initiated two major troop increases in Afghanistan: about 20,000 [...]

Filed Under: Afghanistan, Barack Obama
Sep
19
2012

ABC Misses Real Difference Between Romney, Obama Tapes

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From last night's ABC World News (9/18/12): DIANE SAWYER: But we do remember four years ago the president, then candidate, was at a fundraiser, it was during the primary, but he too was caught on tape. JAKE TAPPER: That's right, he was talking about the difficulty of reaching small-town Pennsylvanians and how, because of tough economic circumstances, they get bitter, they cling to religion and guns and xenophobia. But here is the key difference between what then-Senator Obama said four years and this Mitt Romney tape. What Obama said then, that was seven months before the election. He had time [...]

Filed Under: ABC, Barack Obama, Election, Mitt Romney Tagged With:
Sep
07
2012

Don't Call It 'Raising the Retirement Age,' Because That's Not What They're Doing

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Barack Obama (photo by NASA/Bill Ingalls)

As Dean Baker noted (Beat the Press, 9/7/12), corporate media mostly missed one of the major pieces of news in President Barack Obama's speech to the Democratic National Convention. Talking about the federal budget deficit, Obama said, "Now, I’m still eager to reach an agreement based on the principles of my bipartisan debt commission." Then, as he talked about what he would and wouldn't do to reduce the deficit, he included this line: "And we will keep the promise of Social Security by taking the responsible steps to strengthen it–not by turning it over to Wall Street." "Responsible steps to [...]

Filed Under: Barack Obama, Social Security Tagged With:
Sep
06
2012

AP's Mostly Factless Factcheck

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One of the problems with media "factchecking" is the notion that all things must be "checked" equally. If you factcheck a Republican and find three whoppers, your fact check of a Democrat better work real hard to find a comparable level of spin or dishonesty. Which is exactly how Associated Press reporters Matt Apuzzo and Tom Raum approached Bill Clinton's speech at the Democratic convention last night. Clinton's speech–along with others–"either cherry-picked facts or mischaracterized the opposition." But their first example is extraordinarily weak. They quote Clinton talking about the difference between Obama and Republican leadership when it comes to [...]

Filed Under: AP, Barack Obama, Election, Factchecking, Politics Tagged With: , , ,
Sep
04
2012

Newsweek: Obama Needs to Be Clinton

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A few weeks ago Newsweek got a lot of attention for Niall Ferguson's factually challenged cover story slamming the Obama case for re-election. This week, in true corporate media style, we get the "other" side: An argument that Obama should move the Democratic party to the right. Peter Boyer's piece, "Why Barack Needs Bill," recycles some of more dubious claims about the effectiveness of Clinton's brand of center-right "triangulation." Since this is the media's usual advice for Democrats– move to the right in order to capture the center– it's worth unpacking. Clinton-style "New Democrats," Boyers explains, "have nearly vanished." And [...]

Filed Under: Barack Obama, Election, Environment, Factchecking, Newsweek Tagged With: ,
Aug
29
2012

He Didn't Say It: The RNC's Bogus Theme

By 16 Comments

One of the main themes of the Republican convention is "We Did Build It," a dishonest twist on something Barack Obama said about public spending on infrastructure. We've already gone through this, in part to point out that many outlets chose to repeat the dishonest manipulation of Obama's words instead of explaining what he had actually said. But Republicans are undeterred, and as Bill Keller of the New York Times  (8/28/12) pointed out in a blog post, they found a way to take that dishonesty even further, unveiling videos where Obama is heard saying this: If you've been successful, you [...]

Filed Under: Barack Obama Tagged With: , , ,
Aug
21
2012

Niall Ferguson Can't Be Factchecked!

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Niall Ferguson's Newsweek cover story "Hit the Road, Barack" has attracted lots of the wrong kind of attention. As Dean Baker put it: It's hard to believe that progressive bloggers didn't get together to pay Newsweek to run Niall Ferguson's piece on Obama. The thing is so shot full of easily identifiable errors no serious publication would ever allow it into print. But printed it was–a lengthy cover-story argument against re-electing Obama, based on an array of charts and economic facts that the Harvard professor believes bolster his case. The first–and arguably most important–error was flagged in a blog post [...]

Filed Under: Barack Obama, Election, Factchecking, Healthcare, Medicare, Newsweek Tagged With: , , , ,
Aug
13
2012

PBS Does 'Both Sides' on Bogus Romney Welfare Attack

By 23 Comments

Some campaign disputes can be tricky to sort out. Others are not. That's why media coverage that takes the both-sides-have-a-point approach can be so disappointing, if not dangerous. Take Mitt Romney's recent claim that the White House was "gutting" the work requirements in the  1996 welfare "reform" law. As a Romney TV ad put it: "Under Obama's plan, you wouldn't have to work and wouldn't have to train for a job. They just send you your welfare check." That charge earned a "Pants on Fire" from PolitiFact (8/7/12), which pointed out that the policy change that is supposedly at issue [...]

Filed Under: Barack Obama, Economy, Factchecking, Mitt Romney, PBS, Venezuela Tagged With: , , , ,
Jul
24
2012

Obama Stoops to Convincing Voters Not to Support the Other Guy

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bain-ad

Thomas Byrne Edsall on the New York Times' Campaign Stops blog (7/23/12) accuses Barack Obama of "the politics of anything goes." His evidence: The Obama campaign is running ads attempting to persuade voters not to vote for Mitt Romney. The logic here is sort of hard to follow. First Edsall quotes Obama telling "those who are preparing to divide us" in 2008 that "there's not a liberal America and a conservative America; there's the United States of America." Then he points out that Obama's 2012 campaign (like, undoubtedly, his 2008 campaign) identifies various demographic groups for messaging. I know, shocking. [...]

Filed Under: Advertisers, Barack Obama, Election, New York Times Tagged With: ,
Jul
20
2012

Objectivity and Its Opposite, 'Objectivity'

By 51 Comments

One of the most confusing terms in the media discussion is "objectivity." In philosophy, it refers to a belief in a reality independent of the conscious mind, generally one that can more or less be known and meaningfully discussed. In journalism, on the other hand, it means "don't scare away any potential customers." "Objective" journalism emerged as newspapers realized that they were alienating potential readers by positioning themselves as a paper that saw the world through the lens of a particular party. Why be a Whig paper or a Tory paper, in other words, when you could be an independent [...]

Filed Under: Barack Obama, Economy, Election, Mitt Romney, New York Times Tagged With: , ,
Jul
17
2012

David Gregory Makes a Romney Campaign Ad

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On Sunday (7/15/12), Meet the Press host David Gregory caught Barack Obama in a big-time flip flop on taxes. At least, that's what he seems to think. Gregory said: What the president would like to do is extend the Bush tax cuts for those making less than $200,000, or $250,000, as a family, and then taxes would go up on people above that. Back in 2010, when this issue first came up, this is what President Obama said back then. And then Gregory played this clip from Obama: I am just listening to the consensus among people who know the [...]

Filed Under: Barack Obama, Economy, NBC, Taxes Tagged With: ,
Jul
17
2012

David Gergen Factchecks His Friends—and Financial Partners—at Bain

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There are some pretty intense factchecking fights over what is true and not true about the Obama campaign's claims about Romney's record at Bain Capital. Media outlets are struggling with how to render a verdict; most seem to think Obama has exaggerated. But one outlet has found a voice willing to deliver a judgment. CNN has published a column (7/16/12) by veteran pundit David Gergen headlined: Facts don't support Obama's charges against Romney This is, for Gergen, pretty strong stuff; he's a talking head whose head mostly talks about campaign strategy and the like. He's not one usually to call [...]

Filed Under: Barack Obama, CNN, Election, Factchecking, Mitt Romney Tagged With: , ,
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