Obama Blames Media for Perpetuating "Rude" Behavior in Ongoing Debates

Meredith Jessup | September 21, 2009 12:19 PM

During his Sunday talk-a-thon, President Obama went after an unlikely foe: the press. Despite 95% of them being in the pocket for Obama, the president insisted that he wasn't "media-bashing," but argued that CNN, MSNBC and Fox News were responsible for enabling "rude" behavior.

"I think it's important for the media, you know - not to do any media-bashing here - to recognize that right now, in this 24-hour news cycle, the easiest way to get on CNN is or Fox or any of the other stations, MSNBC is to say something rude and outrageous," Obama said on CNN's Sept. 20 "State of the Union." "If you're civil and polite and you're sensible and you don't exaggerate the-bad things about your opponent and you know, you might get on one of the Sunday shows. But you're not going to be on the loop. And, you know, part of what I'd like to see is all of us reward decency and civility in our political discourse."

I'm not sure how "rude" people are even getting a slice of the news cycle these days since Obama's on his own endless infomercial--all Obama, all the time. The New York Post reports that as of mid-August, Obama took time for a total of 66 television interviews. Meanwhile his two predecessors, George W. Bush and Bill Clinton, had only 16 and six television interviews respectively during the same period of their presidencies.

Give it a rest already! Oh, I'm sorry. Please give it a rest, Mr. President.