While the three networks all responded to the New York Daily News and New York Post whacking Obama for being a no-show at the Paris “unity” rally, the nation’s leading liberal newspapers barely noticed the absence in the Monday morning papers. Perhaps they can play catch-up for Tuesday.
The New York Times and The Washington Post both won the Full Monty award for making no reference whatsoever to Obama’s absence in their front-page stories from Paris.
-- The New York Times had two enormous color photos of the proceedings under the headline “In Paris, Huge Show of Solidarity Against Terrorism.” (Except for the American president, or any of his government’s top officials.) Reporter Liz Alderman began by calling it “the most striking show of solidarity in the West against the threat of Islamic extremism since the Sept. 11 attacks,” but made zero mention of the no-show controversy. Inside, on A6, she reported “Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr.” was attending a meeting in Paris and the White House issuing a statement saying it would convene a meeting against “violent extremists.” It was pitch-perfect obedience.
-- The Washington Post ran the headline “More than a million march in Paris” over two color photos, one of them of world leaders (without Obama). “World leaders link arms,” read the subhead. But reporters Anthony Faiola and Griff Witte never found a controversy.
Making it sound more Obama-friendly? Can that be done? On his blog Achenblog, the Post’s Joel Achenbach added insult to omission by complaining that poor presidents just get criticized no matter what they do.
President Obama is being slammed for not attending Sunday’s huge Paris rally in response to last week’s terrorism in France. The White House has suggested that security issues made the participation of the president and vice president impractical (the U.S. ambassador and U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder represented the United States). In any case: When you’re Obama the one thing you can count on, day to day, is your doing something wrong, heinously wrong, either by commission or omission. The critics would also have been outraged if Obama had gone to Paris and made it all about him.
-- The Wall Street Journal carried a large color photo across the front page with the headline “France Rallies Millions Against Terror,” but briefly brushed past the issue on the front page with “Neither President Barack Obama nor Vice President Joe Biden made the trip.”
-- USA Today carried a huge color picture of the rally and the all-caps headline “WORLD UNITES IN PARIS.” Then off to the right, in much smaller type, it asked WHO REPRESENTED THE UNITED STATES?” The paper answered: “President Obama was not at Sunday’s rally in Paris. Instead, the USA was represented by Ambassador to France Jane Hartley.” A few paragraphs later, after noting a “no official comment” from the White House, they dug Obama out: “Traditionally, U.S. presidents avoid large-scale gatherings such as the one Sunday in Paris because of the difficulty in providing security.”
Dear USA Today: Remember Obama as the “large-scale gathering” of Nelson Mandela’s funeral, the one with the fraudulent sign-languague interpreter that could have compromised his security?
