President Obama conducts his first interview as president with a reporter from Al-Arabiya cable network. (AP Photo/Al-Arabiya)
Obama is newest media rock star
By: Chris Nigro
President Barack Obama certainly has a rock star aura surrounding him. Out of all the 44 presidents of the United States, he will probably receive more coverage than the previous 43.
President Obama only served one term in the United States Senate after serving eight years as an Illinois senator. His was relatively unknown to the rest of the country during this time. That all changed the night of July 27, 2004 when he was given the honor of delivering the keynote address at the Democratic National Convention in Boston, Mass. During the speech, President Obama was still a State Senator and United States Senator candidate. The speech was so well received by America and the news media that there was talk of him being a future presidential candidate.
“For candidate Obama, it was his initial “underdog” or “newcomer” status that drove the narrative surrounding his campaign. When it became a two person race…first against then-Senator Clinton in the primary and then against Senator McCain in the general election…the media by and large were more forgiving of campaign missteps or personal gaffes of the President Obama campaign versus his competitors partly because of the perception that he was David going after the proverbial Goliath,” said Jason Galanes, Communications Director for Congressman Frank LoBiondo (NJ-02) in an e-mail interview.
During the primaries, the media mainly focused on covering the duels between him and Clinton. It appeared as a two candidate primary. On June 3, 2008 after all the states were counted, he was the assumed candidate for the Democratic party. Clinton dropped out and endorsed President Obama. The more the media reported on him the more they liked him. The media focused on his substance at time then his plans and policies. President Obama wowed the public who listened in large numbers, with his speeches The media had never seen anything like this since John F Kennedy.
“It appears that the media shifted its focus after Election Day. Prior to November 4th, the media seemed to report on process rather than substance, meaning the focus was primarily on a candidate’s approach to our nation’s problems. Currently there is a real emphasis on the president’s detailed agenda, and its effect on the American people,” said Deputy Chief of Staff and Press Secretary Fran Tagmire for Congressman Rob Andrews (NJ-01)
During the presidential election between him and Senator John McCain (R-AZ) there were accusations of the media doing more positive reporting on President Obama and his campaign. The media had more negative articles about McCain and his policies and absolutely cruel to his vice president nominee Gov. Sarah Palin. That was during the campaign though a lot has changed since the inauguration. Most people now think that President Obama is getting more of the criticism now that he is President.
“Yeah I think the press is more critical now that he is president. There has even been criticism of the first lady. His policies are also being criticized by all media outlets now. During the campaign is more of what he wanted to do and the media just reported,” said Mark Matalucci who is the testing coordinator at Rowan University and follows politics very closely.
It appears the more heat that is turned up on the President he will attempt to communicate with friendly media outlets. On his March 24, 2009 press conference President Obama reached out to ethnic media outlets and liberal commentators. It was actually a big deal when he called on far left leaning Internet news site the Huffington post.
Many outlets wanted the first interview with the newly inaugurated president, but it was surprisingly granted it to al-Arabiya, a Middle Eastern cable news network. This shocked a great deal of Americans. Another interview President Obama did was with liberal talk show radio host and MSNBC correspondent Ed Shultz. He had also been on CBS’s 60 minutes twice since being elected. Presidents have more access to get their words out in with the modern media
In 1920’s, radio made its way into American politics. It took a while for the presidents to master the brand new medium. Franklin D. Roosevelt was the president to master it and use it to its advantage to communicate with people. People felt comfortable listening to FDR.
“Probably the moderate media began in FDR’s time.” said Dr. Carl Housman of Rowan university. “The type of White House coverage you have today where you have a certain group of people to cover the White House exclusively. So what Roosevelt did was he brought all these people in, but a very homogeneous group. They were all people who Roosevelt liked and they were all a lot like Roosevelt and if they wrote, they were all mostly newspaper people and if they wrote something they Roosevelt didn’t like they no longer had access.”
The world is filled with media outlets from TV to the internet. It is a mega-world point of view and opinions on President Obama. Americans are free to choose where they want to get these points of view and opinions. Americans tend to seek out outlets that share their points of view.
“As for TV, right after the election, I made a point of switching back and forth between CNN and Fox. I must say that CNN is a little more balanced than TIME. Certainly less ga-ga in its coverage. And I think CNN deserves an award for the way it’s covered the economic meltdown,” said former KYW-Pittsburgh anchorwomen Lori Savitch.
