Concerning President Obama, his obviously most important quote of the past 48 hours is his statement to ABC's Jake Tapper (transcript here) that concerning the economy, "I believe all the choices we've made have been the right ones ..."
Clearly, such a remark, if widely known, would be problematic for the President among quite a number of unemployed and underemployed Americans. In the New Media age, of course, it can't be kept totally under wraps, but at the two organizations which still consider themselves the nation's news gatekeepers, Obama's statement apparently hasn't made the cut. Consider it the latest installment in what might as well be dubbed, "Operation Protect the President."
At the Associated Press's main site, a search on "Obama choices" (not in quotes) returns nothing relevant.
A Google News search on [Obama "choices we've made" "associated press"] (input exactly as indicated between brackets) comes up empty.
At the New York Times, a search on [Obama "choices we've made"] (input exactly as indicated between brackets) comes up completely empty. Widening the search to "Obama choices" (not in quotes) returns nothing relevant.
At least the gatekeepers can't shut out things they don't want to relay like they used to. A Google News search on the full quote entered with quote marks ("I believe all the choices we've made have been the right ones"; sorted by date, with duplicates) returns 12 items. Although one of them is from Tapper's Political Punch Blog at ABC News where Devin Dwyer teased the interview Tuesday afternoon, the Tapper interview itself is not in the results (a glitch, perhaps?). A Google Web search on the full quote entered with quote marks (past week only, sorted by date, including similar items) returns 412 results.
Nonetheless, the failure by the Associated Press and the New York Times to inform its readers and, in the AP's case, its subscribing listeners and viewers is quite derelict -- and, sadly, quite typical. Also concerning the AP, which should consider renaming itself "The Administration's Press," the determination to ensure that the relatively disengaged don't hear anything unsettling about the president seems pretty obvious.
It really isn't even necessarly to note that a Republican or conservative president making such a statement would be getting blanket and perhaps mocking coverage from the self-appointed gatekeepers. But I will anyway.
Cross-posted at BizzyBlog.com.
