President Obama’s press conference on his Iran “deal” this week is a case study in just how far journalism has fallen as a profession. The big stories to come out of the alleged most power man on the planet speaking for more than an hour had nothing to do with the United States effectively blessing a nuclear Iran. No, the big stories were Bill Cosby and the fact the president finally was asked a direct, difficult question.
The media elite quickly formed a protective circle around the president when CBS News Chief White House Correspondent Major Garrett asked why the fate of four Americans held in Iran was not included as part of a deal in which Iran, by all accounts, demanded and got everything including the kitchen sink. The president became insolent, like a spoiled child hearing the word “no” for the first time, and the Royal Court of Journalists rallied to his aid.
Laments of the disrespectful nature of the question and outrage it was asked in the East Room drown out the fact the president had no good answer, that he had left those people out to dry for the sake of vanity.
And Bill Cosby? The president has agreed to lift the ban on conventional weapons and intercontinental ballistic missile technology to the world’s largest sponsor of terrorism and evil in the world, and one of the few people allowed to ask him about it personally chooses to ask about what an aging sitcom star may or may not have done a generation ago?
If that weren’t bad enough, Obama’s remarks on Cosby were the lead banner story on CNN’s website immediately after the press conference. Putting aside the fact the story was irrelevant to the issue or the nation as a whole, the president’s answer was less impressive than the Iran deal itself. “If you give a woman – or a man, for that matter – without his or her knowledge a drug and then have sex with that person without consent, that's rape,” he said.
Yes, Mr. President, that is pretty much the definition of rape. What other wisdom would you like to impart to us peasants? The sky is blue? The sun rises in the east? CNN would run either or those as breaking news for the next 24 hours.
It’s rather pathetic the president could speak for more than an hour and say nothing. It’s sadder still the media would accept that and report his platitudes as insightful nuggets of genius, then attack one of their own for doing the job the way they pretend it’s supposed to be done. There’s a reason the American people hold the media in contempt, and it’s not jealousy.
In between curtsies, the media managed to fully ignore the actual news.
Remember Obamacare? It’s not only the greatest thing since sliced bread, it’s so amazing that 97 percent of scientists surveyed believe it may have sliced the first loaf. It’s also going to kill people.
That’s not hyperbole, nor is it surprising, unless your worldview is bent through the prism of the likes of Krugman, Klein and the rest of the presidential throne-sniffing media.
In a story Wednesday, the Washington Post reported on a study finding, “Consumers who bought insurance on the health exchanges last year had access to one-third fewer doctors and hospitals, on average, than people with traditional employer-provided coverage.”
Did you hear about it? Did you read it? Was the president asked about it? Of course not.
Even if you read the Post, there’s a good chance you didn’t read about this because it was buried in the back of the A section. Call me old fashioned, but discovering that “Compared with traditional employer coverage, exchange plans had networks with 42 percent fewer cancer and cardiac specialists; 32 percent fewer mental health and primary-care doctors, and 24 percent fewer hospitals,” might warrant some additional inquiry.
Nope, not worth the time. Millions of Americans have lost their preferred health insurance, were forced into a government exchange and now will have a long wait to see a cancer doctor thanks to it, and the story is already dead.
The story, by the way, never once mentioned any of the following words: Obamacare, Obama, President or Democrats. It’s as if the law was beamed down from the Starship Enterprise right before it hit warp speed and disappeared. Magic.
It’s not news the media is biased. It’s not shocking a legacy-obsessed president would be more afraid of no deal than he would a bad deal, especially when he knows those charged with covering his actions are his biggest fans. What is surprising is the depths to which both freely go with a brazenness generally reserved for someone drunk beyond any state of self-awareness.
They say drunks have to “hit bottom” before they reform. Although the president has no incentive or real need to reform since he’ll never face voters again, the media will have to continue to work for a living after Jan. 20, 2017, and credibility is their currency. This week provided yet another example of the fact that, for the media, there is no bottom to hit. Just when you think they might have, they’ve always got a shovel.