As Tim Graham mentioned earlier, Washington Post Style-page columnist/TV critic Tom Shales went completely rhapsodic over President Obama's speech last night. It's a bizzaro read, actually. Starting with the headline, "Obama's Enchanting Quizfest" and continuing with descriptors like "earnestly," "disarmingly," "enchantingly" (again), "comfortingly cool and collected," "truly flabbergasting" (in a good way, pretty sure he means), and so on. Shales even compares Obama to a comic-book hero. The level of abject fawning and slobbering on the part of Shales is itself truly flabbergasting (in not a good way, I mean). What possessed him to lose sense of appropriate professional tone in covering an elected official? Fine, you think the man is doing a great job in office. But as a journalist, why write it that way? Especially in the wake of Obama's massive government expansion and take-over of the US economy, Shales really does a disservice to WaPo readers by abandoning a more balanced, detached and critical write-up of the Obama 100-day presser.
Obama-Fawning Over at the WaPo - Tom Shales Rhapsodic Over Obama Speech
April 30th, 2009 10:57 AM
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