I was watching the news tonight, and every channel was talking about the coming nuclear holocaust in Japan. This was a little too depressing, sensationalistic and repetitive for me, so I switched over to Hannity on Fox News. (I know, “Boo! Boo!” But in my defense, it’s a really funny show.) They were covering the story from a different angle, basically using it as an excuse to attack President Obama for playing golf during an international crisis, and reminding us of how the “Mainstream Media” (as they call the other news networks, excluding themselves) used to savage President Bush for playing golf during crises to the point where he actually stopped playing golf altogether. This is actually a good point, although maybe not as pressing an issue as the nuclear catastrophe. The truth is that, yes, the majority of news outlets used to criticize President Bush to no end for playing golf (or clearing brush, or whatever) during times of crisis, but they haven’t said a peep about President Obama doing the exact same thing (well, not clearing brush, but you get my drift), only it really seems like President Obama is doing it a lot more. (I don't know if this is actually true, but Fox News says it is, so I'm just going to go with it.) I think this is because he knows he can get away with it. Now, this may begin to sound like a partisan argument to you, but I assure you it’s not: what I’m really getting at is how stupidly counter-productive this behavior has been for the media.
Okay, let’s start with President (George W.) Bush: The media criticized and attacked him for anything they could think of, but especially pounced at easy opportunities such as when he played golf, etc., when important things were happening. Was this constructive for them? Let’s look at the facts: The media hated President Bush, as indeed many Americans did, for what he was doing policy-wise. When he played golf, he wasn’t busy with any policy or legislative stuff, but when they made him stop playing golf (and he did stop playing golf because of all the criticism), he had lots more time for policy stuff, which the media hated him for. Um, it seems to me that if they had let President Bush play golf all the time, he would have had a lot less time for policy, and he wouldn’t have had that much of an effect on the country. You know the phrase, “It’s Bush’s fault”? Well, it might not have been if the media establishment had left him alone to just play golf and clear brush. In fact, it is my belief that the Iraq War is completely the fault of the media people who criticized President Bush for playing golf. It’s apparent that without golf, the President developed aggression issues that had to be expressed somehow, and invading Iraq was the obvious outlet. And since most everyone, including the media, seemed to support invading Iraq at first, Mr. Bush probably thought: “This is way better than golf!” And so he did it.
Which brings me to President Obama: This guy spends a lot of time with recreational activities, but you won’t hear anyone criticize him for it except for Fox News (and nobody pays any serious attention to them). This is funny when you consider that there is a lot more progressive policy stuff that the media is hoping for out of this President. Every time he gets a pass playing golf or basketball, he learns that they will let him get away with more and more, so he does it more and more, and that’s less time that he can spend on policy stuff. You get my drift? The point is that if Fox News wants President Obama to make less policy, they should sit quietly while he plays golf; and if the rest of the media wants him to do more agenda stuff, they should press him to stop playing golf and basketball and get busy on policy. Or maybe they’re worried that if they do, he’ll get all aggressive like the last guy and invade Iran. I guess we’ll never know unless they try it…
