Not Very 'Interesting': ABC and CBS Morning Shows Ignore Obama Gaffe

Kyle Drennen
January 31st, 2012 2:56 PM
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While NBC correspondent Peter Alexander noted on Tuesday's Today how "Republicans are jumping on the president's choice of words" in telling a woman her husband's long-term unemployment was "interesting" to him, neither ABC's Good Morning America nor CBS's This Morning bothered to highlight Obama's aloof flub.

The NBC report played the sound bite of the president's remark: "It is interesting to me – and I meant what I said, if you send me your husband's resume I'd be interested in finding out exactly what's happening right there – because the word we're getting is, is that somebody in that kind of high-tech field, that kind of engineer, should be able to find something right away."

In contrast to their silence on Obama looking detached from the concerns of ordinary voters, both the ABC and CBS morning shows pounced on Mitt Romney earlier this month when the Republican candidate told New Hampshire voters that he liked being able to "fire" health insurance companies that do not provide adequate coverage.

Those in media took the comment wildly out of context and excitedly speculated on how much it would hurt Romney. On ABC's Good Morning America, co-host and former Democratic operative George Stephanopoulos proclaimed: "Democrats just licking their chops when they saw this."

Meanwhile, on CBS's This Morning, Face the Nation host Bob Schieffer appeared on the program to mock Romney: "I guess the only thing worse you could say...when people are out of work is that Herbert Hoover is my hero or something like that. It just boggles the mind."

Why isn't Schieffer's mind boggled when President Obama seems puzzled by the plight of average Americans?

Here is Alexander's January 31 mention of Obama's gaffe:
 

7:03AM ET

(...)

ALEXANDER: And following an interactive Google event with the White House Monday night, Republicans are jumping on the president's choice of words. Mr. Obama offered to help an unemployed engineer get work. The president telling the man's wife he finds it "interesting" that her husband's out of work.

[ON-SCREEN HEADLINE: "Interesting"; GOP Questions President's Response on Unemployed Man]

BARACK OBAMA: It is interesting to me – and I meant what I said, if you send me your husband's resume I'd be interested in finding out exactly what's happening right there – because the word we're getting is, is that somebody in that kind of high-tech field, that kind of engineer, should be able to find something right away.

(...)