NYT: Media Aren't Biased, Just Noticing Obama Looks 'Supreme'

Photo of Tim Graham.

On Wednesday, New York Times TV critic Alessandra Stanley rejected the notion of a pro-Obama bias as the junior senator from Illinois traveled abroad. The media wasn’t boosting Obama. They merely noticed the fact that he is "supremely confident" and looks like he’s already president. He is displaying "classic Kennedy style" and practicing "statesmanly restraint." McCain can’t complain about media bias because his stagecraft is "unflattering."

The "effusion of coverage" is just "the news" that Obama is already so unusually presidential in appearance, she wrote:  

But it’s not pro-Obama bias in the news media that’s driving the effusion of coverage, it’s the news: Mr. Obama’s weeklong tour of war zones and foreign capitals is noteworthy because it is so unusual to see a presidential candidate act so presidential overseas. Mr. Obama looks supremely confident and at home talking to generals and heads of state, so much so that some viewers may find the pose presumptuous -- as if Mr. Obama believes that not only is his official nomination at the Democratic convention in August a mere formality, so is the November election...

Mr. Obama’s stops in Afghanistan, Iraq and Jordan provided arresting video of the candidate being mobbed by American troops, surveying terrain by helicopter alongside Gen. David H. Petraeus and holding talks with Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki of Iraq and King Abdullah of Jordan. When posing for an official photograph with a foreign leader, Mr. Obama often places his hand paternally on the other man’s arm, subliminally signaling that though a visitor, he is the real host of the meeting.

Touring ruins of the Citadel in Amman, Mr. Obama strode confidently with his jacket crooked over his shoulder in classic Kennedy style. He also practiced statesmanly restraint, telling reporters in Amman that he wouldn’t criticize his opponent while abroad.

Some images are so potent that Fox News, which hammers at Mr. Obama’s lack of foreign policy experience, uses its headline crawls as disclaimers: Shots of his arrival in Iraq were captioned, "Obama in Iraq: Second-Ever Trip There."

So Stanley thinks there's not a pro-Obama bias in the liberal establishment media, there's only bias on Fox News, which has the audacity to undercut the supremely confident Kennedy-style candidate at the podium.  She argued McCain was creating a P.R. disaster by tooling around on a golf cart with Bush the Elder as if he was former President Clinton:

McCain aides haven’t been nearly as creative on his behalf: their stagecraft has been notably unflattering to the candidate. While Mr. Obama was shown striding across military tarmacs and inspecting troops standing at attention, Mr. McCain on Monday was seen being driven around in a golf cart by former President George Bush in the resort town of Kennebunkport, Me. Later, the two men spoke to reporters side by side at a waterfront, and they looked more like fellow members of a Past Presidents’ Club than a party elder passing the torch to his political heir.

Stanley isn't really evaluating the weaknesses of both candidates, just the one she doesn't support. Otherwise, she might note the discordant image of Barack Obama, the candidate who ran to the left of Hillary Clinton to please the hard-left base at MoveOn and Code Pink, inspecting troops in foreign theatres as if he would have ever sent them abroad to fight anywhere.

—Tim Graham is Director of Media Analysis at the Media Research Center


Comments Policy

All comments are owned by whoever posted them and are subject to our terms of use. They should not be assumed to represent the views of NewsBusters.

Viewing options

Select your preferred way to display the comments and click "Save settings" to activate your changes.

Are we surprised?

A Lib taking style over substance. I will admit though, Barry's trip has been well planned with great photo ops. Kudos to his handlers.

Now if he could just remember how many states we have in the US...

Alessandra

I believe that Alessandra is just being "mordantly serious". I am sure she is very confused why Rush Limbaugh has such a greater following than she does. Go figure.

Let's not forget how Kerry

Let's not forget how Kerry "looked presidential" during his campaign.

 

"Forget change, I want improvement!"

 History will note that the

 History will note that the United States of America underwent a coup, brought about by the MSM, to drive their own leftist agenda to the mainstream of the American public. When you write the news, you can make it sound anyway you want to. You can make honest descent sound loony if you care to. This however, will not last. In the end, the ones who perpetrate this style of government lose, they always lose.  When it comes to it, Americans will not stand to have their freedoms taken away. Those little smirks you see on the Kos-kids will go away. They will forever regret tweaking the nose of real Americans.

Looking "confident" is in the eyes of the beholder...

Where did the adjective "Supremely" Confident come from ? I need an explanation on that one.
Sounds like more BIAS to me, or BDS withdrawal symptons.
The Republican Revolution will not be Televised

Cart before the horse

You can't argue that Obama's performance during the trip makes it newsworthy, because the media were already there. The media had already decided that the trip was going to be news, long before Obama got on the plane. That's why they're there in the first place. By the same token, they didn't go with McCain on any of his trips, because they didn't think they were going to be newsworthy. (So how would they know, by the way, whether McCain looked presidential on those trips?) 

Like David Shuster, the NY Times decided that "America doesn't care" about McCain, and only cares about Obama.

The reason the media followed Obama and ignored McCain has nothing to do with the performance during the trip itself. It's very simple. The media like Obama, don't like McCain as much, so they're only going to cover the stories that fit their likes and dislikes. Of course, that's the definition of biased news reporting - you're only covering what advances your prejudices. That's like a judge not allowing the defense lawyer to present a case because the judge was wowed by the prosecutor. I mean, you just can't do that.

The real laugh came when she said: "When posing for an official photograph with a foreign leader, Mr. Obama often places his hand paternally on the other man’s arm, subliminally signaling that though a visitor, he is the real host of the meeting." When an American disregards the fact that he is in another country, and treats the locals as inferior ... that's the basis of the phrase "Ugly American." Since when did being an ugly American count as being presidential? And these people resented "cowboy" diplomacy?

The media is getting sillier with each passing story ...

P.R.

It's just the Obama P.R. campaign/tour. I hope the MSM is getting a great payoff for their efforts.

Obama is touring the West and MidEast playing president while McCain is really working like he wants to be president.

Hillary looked Presidential also..ask her how that worked out

This is 'Supremely" BIAS CRAP FROM NYTimes
The Republican Revolution will not be Televised

Mr. Obama’s lack of foreign policy experience

How dare Fox say Obama doesn't have experience. Are they forgetting he was a community organizer? With this great experience he is defiantly more qualified than McCain to organize everything in our lives here and overseas.  The 300 Foreign advisors he has are just around to learn from him not the other way around. The media gets it, we just don't.    All Hail Obama

"Liberalism is a mental disorder" -Michael Savage

Obama an International, McCain a backwoods bumpkin

From Stanley's article:

"CNN even contrasted how the two candidates pronounce Pakistan. Mr. Obama favors the more international Pahk-ee-stahn; Mr. McCain keeps the a’s flat."

So I guess it's really Baad-drok O-bahm-MA, the way a Muslim would pronounce it, not the 'Americanized' plain old Barack Obama. We've all been mispronouncing his name.

Unlike the rest of us, The Messiah is 'international', even though the dope does not have even a rudimentary grasp on even one foreign language.

Hell, what am I saying, he even sucks at English. As we've seen in his freerolling speeches this week sans teleprompters, he can't string two sentences together without "uh, uh, uh..." He's even worse than Ed Koch, if that's even possible.

On an up note, this past week has been the first time he has dared venture out without all his usual propaganda signage and backdrops - very Presidential not to bring the sign crew along.

No Hopey Changey for me

I sure hope "flipper" is having to pay the msm for all the advertising.  Seems only right!

international

international Pahk-ee-stahn;

That's BALONEY!

Let me educate Ms Stanley from from neat position of actually knowing what I am talking about.

(And being a bit of a pronunciation buff regarding American English and British English, it's a hobby-horse of mine! Hot tip, our variations seem to be converging into a standard English on both sides of the pond.)

Parky-starn, That is how THE QUEEN OF ENGLAND, or stuck-up British elites, or the insufferable bores at the BBC may pronounce Paki-stan.

I can assure her that in England (home of English), as in the US, the vast majority of ordinary folks say PAKI...stan. FLAT.

Vote 4 change. Vote 4 anything. See Jack & Mr Shy's first campaign ad for the ONLY viable 3rd party candidate.