RBO News & Views: The “Is the Media Honeymoon Over Yet?” Edition

The Age of Obama?: First of all — That’s NOT my flag! And THAT will never be my President! Bonus Question: When did the star-filled field of blue morph into the Obama “O”?

Take your Dramamine before reading the following. Ready? Jon Avlon at The Daily Beast writes that “right now” WE are “enjoying a bit of bliss after a 22-month build-up.” Sorry, Jon, was that a royal “we”? No bliss here.

Apparently Jon took a big oxygen gulp or got the memo or something before he wrote: “This Camelot moment won’t last either. There will be mistakes, scandals, and missteps.”

The only reasonable explanation for that comment is that Jon has been on a “trip” and totally missed the VAST MSM COVERAGE on Tony Rezko, Billy Ayers and Bernardine Dohrn, Jeremiah “God-Damn-AmeriKKKa” Wright, Louis Farrakhan, James Meeks, Michael Pfleger, Kwame Kilpatrick, and Michelle “America-Never-Loved-Me” Obama, nevermind endorsements by Hugo Chavez, Fidel Castro, Hamas, and any number of world-renowned terrorists.

But then the Obama-flavored Kook Ade kicked in: “But if you’re feeling a dash of irrational exuberance you’re not alone—and there are in fact real reasons to feel renewed optimism about the USA at the dawn of the age of Obama.”

The dawn of the age of Obama??!!?? WTF?

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Obubble Bursting?: Dan Riehl at Riehl World View thinks it’s possible, or at least inevitable:

I have a funny feeling about Obama and it isn’t a tingle running up my leg.

Combine a certain arrogance as evidenced by pretending there actually is an “Office of the President-elect” with the media’s incessant swooning over all things Obama and a public aready in a bad mood – there may come a time when the public gets very tired of the latest American Idol who became President. Let’s hope it doesn’t happen before he even takes office.

But if and when it happens, watch out.

Also, the media damaged itself significantly by fawning over Obama during the campaign. If he goes down, any remaining shred of credibility they may still have will go with him.

Don’t be surprised if they try to prop him up for that reason alone, if nothing else. They invested heavily in Obama. I’m unconvinced the majority of the public has to this point.

Eventually Obama is going to have to show something worthy of all this praise. And I can’t find anything on his resume that actually warrants the rave reviews.

Funny that you should mention Obama’s “resume”, Dan. Everyone who applies to work for the President-Select must have a verifiable one — except the President-Select. His is MIA.

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FauxBama News: Pamela Geller at Atlas Shrugs reports that Fox News has gone over to the “dark side”.

Confirming the worst fears of millions of dedicated fans, the Fox News Channel really has gone soft on Obama. That’s at a time when viewers are counting on it to remain a key opposition voice during a disturbing political shift away from freedom and prosperity.

Geller reports from New York Daily News columnists Rush & Malloy who wrote November 7, 2008, that “Fox has issued a chilling edict to its hosts that they must cease criticism of Obama for the near future”:

Fox News boss Roger Ailes doesn’t want to spoil Barack Obama’s political honeymoon, we hear. A source says Ailes has told prime-time hosts Bill O’Reilly, Sean Hannity and Greta Van Susteren to lay off the President-elect – at least for a while. “We’re not going to have any personal attacks on Obama,” a network insider says. “The public has spoken – we must treat him with respect.”

The public has spoken? Which part? The approximately 50% soon-to-have buyers’ remorse or the approximately 50% who knew better than to vote for him in the first place?

Update: Maybe it has something to do with this: Steve Gilbert at Sweetness & Light reports from the November 28, 2008, LA Times:

Now that the campaign is over and Obama is president-elect, his reticence to talk with the media is gone. Now, he’s eager to spread the impression of abundant pre-oath energy and activity.

So, he’s held four news conferences and two sit-down TV interviews since election day, including three news conferences three days in a row this week. He’s broken the news conference record for all recent presidents-elect.

At these news sessions since Nov. 4, the future commander in chief has answered a total of 22 questions from different reporters. Wednesday, it was NPR, the N.Y. Daily News and CNN.

But not once has the election victor called on a representative of Fox News. He just hasn’t seemed to spot them waving their hand for recognition…

So, this is the way that it works — freeze Fox out and, next thing you know, “fair and balanced” gets thrown under the Obama bus.

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“Obama-remorse”?: Jon Friedman wrote November 28, 2008 at MarketWatch:

Chalk it up to a phenomenon I’d like to call “Obama-remorse.” You know how you feel buyer’s remorse after you’ve spent a lot of dough on some big-ticket item, only to realize that you might have made a mistake? Well, it’s going to happen to the president-elect as well.

Perhaps this sort of recognition prompted Washington Post media writer Howard Kurtz to do an incisive piece called “A Giddy Sense of Boosterism” on Nov. 17. As Kurtz noted, the media have tripped over themselves to celebrate and cash in on Obama’s victory. [...]

Yes, I’m thrilled that he won the election, underscoring the American ideal that we live in a forward-thinking democracy, where any man or woman can rise to the highest office in the land. And I’m proud that even Obama’s staunchest foes — particularly the man he defeated, John McCain — seem to be willing to accept his victory and pledge to help him turn around the economy and cure the nation’s other ills.

But I also feel guilty because I know that the media’s Adulation Express — never to be confused with McCain’s old Straight Talk Express — is going to hit a few speed bumps before it inexorably grinds to a halt.

It’s inevitable. Look at what happened to Sarah Palin, McCain’s running mate.

The WaPo’s Kurtz wrote:

But what happens when adulation gives way to the messy, incremental process of governing? When Obama has to confront a deep-rooted financial crisis, two wars and a political system whose default setting is gridlock? When he makes decisions that inevitably disappoint some of his boosters? [...]

There is always a level of excitement when a new president is coming to town — new aides to profile, new policies to dissect, new family members to follow. But can anyone imagine this kind of media frenzy if John McCain had managed to win?

Obama’s days of walking on water won’t last indefinitely. His chroniclers will need a new story line. And sometime after Jan. 20, they will wade back into reality.

If this latter is true, RBO has a question. What happens to all those posters of Obama walking on water?

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At Last! Voice of Reason: Digby, ever sharp to point out the obvious to the oblivious, writes:

This is a member of the media writing this as if its something fated by the Gods — something over which these media professionals simply have no control. It’s inevitable! And it’s inevitable because reporters have buyers remorse and will have to “turn sour” in order to assuage their bad feelings about themselves.

It’s all about them, you see.

I agree with this fellow that this is probably going to be the dynamic. It was predicted long ago. But it certainly doesn’t have to be. The media could develop some self awareness and not play out their adolescent psychodramas on American politics for a change. But I’m not hopeful when media establishment leaders like Halperin and Kurtz are bringing the hammer down so hard.

Meanwhile, it looks like the old innocent bystander excuse is coming into play heavily. This person, who is a paid media professional, is “observing” how the paid professional media is going to turn on Obama as if his publishing this story isn’t helping them do exactly that by pretending that it is some sort of inexorable certainty. It’s kewl kid kabuki, same as it ever was. I’m pretty sure they don’t even know they’re doing it.

Can’t wait to see how all those “kewl kids” will react when the Obamessiah starts “redistributing” their paychecks.

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