The Press Paradigm of the Obama Administration

I think I see a problem.

ca.news.yahoo.com...

President Barack Obama "declared an end" to his predecessor's "war on terror" and began to heal the US reputation abroad when he ordered the Guantanamo Bay prison to close, US editorialists wrote Friday.

My understanding of what the President did was that he ordered the closure of a prison, period. Did I miss something?

"President Obama yesterday eliminated the most controversial tools employed by his predecessor against terrorism suspects," the Post said.

Has he eliminated renditions along with Gitmo? What about the Patriot Act? What about the Military Commissions Act? Doesn't he have some way to go yet? Not as far as the press is concerned obviously.

"With the stroke of his pen, he effectively declared an end to the 'war on terror,' as President George W. Bush had defined it, signaling to the world that the reach of the US government in battling its enemies will not be limitless," it said.

Ya know, I think that's reading a lot into the closure of the prison at Guantanamo Bay.

Is there a possibility that this is the new administrations's press paradigm.?

Walk a yard. The job of the press will be to say you walked a mile.

And that way it will take so much longer to travel any appreciable distance from the goals and aims of the Bush administration.

Am I being overly cynical about this?

The press article quoted had me jumping for joy for a moment, thinking that Obama had signed a series of executive orders rescinding the excesses of the Bush administration. Are we already starting to be hoodwinked?


[edit on 23-1-2009 by ipsedixit]

No, you're not being cynical. Its mostly just for show. Those Gitmo detainees? They're probably not going to be turned loose on the streets anytime soon, but instead will be brought to prisons within the US. Whatever. I do hope that he takes Murtha up on his offer to send them all to his district, however.

Ending the War on Terror?
Right. I don't know who this guy and the media think they're kidding. Obama intends to ramp up US efforts in Afghanistan and while one can assume we'll withdraw from Iraq, until it happens, obviously, we're still there. Oh, and there was that whole missile incident in Pakistan this morning. So what in the real world changed when he signed that piece of paper. Absolutely nothing.

Originally posted by vor78
So what in the real world changed when he signed that piece of paper. Absolutely nothing.

That story just shows one how completely disgusting the mainstream press is. Obama will have to repeal a whole lot of legislation introduced by Bush before I'm impressed.

ca.news.yahoo.com...

"Obama deserves credit for ending the worst of the Bush administration's excesses in the 'war on terror'

It sickens me to think that it is beginning to look like a whole generation of Americans will grow up thinking, as the L.A. Times apparently does, that the Patriot Act and allied legislation is not the worst and most insidious side of the "War on Terror".

Oh well. We'll just have to soldier on.


[edit on 23-1-2009 by ipsedixit]

It's not surprising to me. I said that the media would be doing this since last year. They're job is to twist and spin the reality of any situation and feed it to the public. This happens even in the media of a high school news paper. It's sick that they're allowed to do it, but these biases are never going to go away.

Guess what . . . I can't even write the words. The Obama Press Paradigm is being applied in other areas. Now the Nobel Committee has the disease. (If the Nazis had won WW2, I'm sure Hitler would have gotten the Nobel Peace Prize as well as he brought the war to a conclusion.)

ca.news.yahoo.com...

U.S. President Barack Obama won the Nobel Peace Prize on Friday for giving the world "hope for a better future" and striving for nuclear disarmament, in a surprise award that drew both warm praise and sharp criticism.

This is the first time the Nobel Prize has been awarded for being a gas bag. It stinks as much as Henry Kissinger's award. But at least Kissinger negotiated a treaty.