The media really is freaking out over Golf-gate… at least, to the extent they’re willing to get truly upset with Barack Obama about anything. Yesterday brought a really remarkable Politico article about “Obama the Puppet Master.” I picked it apart in depth here; suffice to say, it’s a marvel of passive-aggressive resentment mixed with admiration.
Taken with other media anguish about Obama ordering them off the golf course, it might also be a very low-caliber shot across the bow at the White House – “even you can only abuse us so much, Mr. Obama.” Above all, it’s a limited mea culpa designed to shift the blame for media bias, peppered with repeated insistence that conservatives have it all wrong. The media’s not serving as willing cheerleaders for a President they ardently support. No, they’ve been seduced by Obama’s awesome media manipulation skills and advanced technology! They’re really the victims here. They’re basically American heroes for bravely stepping forward and softly muttering about the way they’ve been treated for the last four years… months after Obama’s second term was secure.
It’s a lot of fun to read the Politico piece – which includes some quotes very unhelpful to their “conservative are wrong about media bias” protests – and try to imagine the press falling for any of the tactics that supposedly overpowered their objectivity with respect to Obama, if they were employed by a Republican. Try to imagine them sitting quietly and nursing their grievances while a Republican who treated them so briskly ran for re-election. Imagine them happily running with stories and spin they knew were planted by the operatives of a Republican White House.
Media bias didn’t make Obama’s manipulation tactics unnecessary. It made them effective.
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