Obama’s guide tour is a reminder he’s the media’s favourite movie star. He might by no means survive the scrutiny Trump faces

Barack Obama is out selling his new guide by puff-piece media interviews, a reminder of how a lot he bought away with as president and the truth that he couldn’t deal with the extent of scrutiny thrown at his successor, Donald Trump.

Watching media interviews with Obama whereas he promotes his new guide ‘A Promised Land,’ you’d assume he was a film star speaking up a movie challenge, relatively than the previous commander-in-chief. 

From enjoying “wastepaper basketball” with late evening host Stephen Colbert to fielding softball questions on what Trump’s ascension to political energy “says” in regards to the US, Obama has been given a platform time and time-again to color himself as a constructive chief in distinction to Trump’s brash fashion. 

The reality is Obama would by no means have made it by his eight years if he have been compelled to face the media scrutiny that Trump faces. Say what you’ll about Trump’s typo-laden, early morning tweets and his combative interactions with journalists, however he’s arguably probably the most accessible president in US historical past. He could name his media critics “pretend information,” however he additionally does this within the open and faces them head-on. 

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Obama has loved – and continues to get pleasure from – a love affair with the mainstream media that’s allowed him to not solely paint a false narrative about his personal presidency, but in addition to keep away from pesky questioning about his failings. 

The previous president has, as an example, been used as a speaking head in interviews to present his ‘knowledgeable’ recommendation on Trump’s 2016 victory and his continued reputation with a big portion of the US (even dropping to Biden, he nonetheless gained tens of millions of votes in 2020).

On Hispanics who voted for the president, Obama dismissed them as “evangelical” voters who weigh sure points as extra necessary than others. 

“The truth that Trump says racist issues about Mexicans or places detainees, undocumented staff, in cages, they assume that’s much less necessary than the truth that he helps their views on homosexual marriage or abortion,” he advised ‘The Breakfast Membership’ radio present this week. 

Following an announcement like this, one is perhaps inclined to ask Obama about these “cages” being constructed and utilized throughout his administration, or ask him what he believes Trump’s views on homosexual marriage and abortion really are. Whereas the present president has mentioned he’s for “conventional marriage” up to now, he additionally technically entered workplace in approval of homosexual marriage. Obama, alternatively, didn’t endorse the concept till 2012, years into his presidency.

There have been no such follow-up questions. Obama was allowed to color the narrative the place he’s the great liberal battling it out with hate-mongers like Trump and his non secular supporters carrying blinders. 

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The previous president has additionally been given loads of alternatives to dissect the state of the media immediately and Trump’s relationship with it. 

In an interview with The Atlantic, Obama lamented that there isn’t a widespread narrative anymore, however relatively separate narratives that current ‘alternate info’ based mostly on the identical story to feed into completely different audiences. 

“I feel it’s the single largest menace to our democracy,” he mentioned. “I feel Donald Trump is a creature of this, however he didn’t create it. He could also be an accelerant of it, but it surely preceded him and can outlast him. I’m deeply troubled by how we deal with it.”

Maybe Obama ought to be requested about how he “addressed” it throughout his presidency. He not solely referred to as Fox Information, one of many shops most crucial of him, “damaging” throughout his time in workplace, but in addition used the 1917 Espionage Act to prosecute extra individuals for leaking delicate data than all different earlier administrations mixed. 

His Justice Division seized the data of 20 Related Press workplace cellphone strains and reporters’ numbers with out discover, claiming it was half of a bigger investigation into disclosure of details about a terrorist plot. It was simply one in every of many occasions Obama was accused by critics of infringing on press freedoms. As damaging as Trump is in regards to the media, Obama was a closed-off president, with an administration extremely combative with the press behind the scenes. 

Does he get requested in regards to the distinction of those actions together with his phrases now about press freedom? After all not. Identical to when he was president, nearly all of the media merely let him communicate and they don’t query. They’re extra involved about imply tweets. 

Obama has remained comparatively unscathed by his actions as president and controversies surrounding him and his inside circle – Joe Biden, anybody? – as a result of the press treats him like a celeb versus a politician. Paradoxically, Trump, a person who constructed a fortune off of being a celeb, is handled extra as a politician by the press than his predecessor. 

“I simply wish to take a second to drink you in for only a second, as a result of I’m having to get used to taking a look at a president once more,” Colbert advised Obama this week in an embarrassing, beaming interview. 

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If Colbert, a liberal speaking head who poses as a comic, actually cared so deeply in regards to the workplace of the presidency, he might have requested Obama about his empty guarantees to finish the wars within the Center East versus his precise war-hawk actions as president. He might have requested him about Guantanamo Bay, Operation Quick and Livid, accusations that Joe Biden used his workplace to participate in his son Hunter’s worldwide enterprise dealings, or one in every of one million different deeds that put his eight years within the Oval Workplace in a nasty gentle. 

As an alternative, he asks him how horrible Trump is and provides him time to promote his pleasant demeanor to an viewers nonetheless satisfied he was an excellent president. 

Obama’s press tour is a reminder of the failure of the media throughout his eight years in workplace. Whereas you’ll nonetheless hear unproven claims based mostly on nameless studies about Trump calling deceased troopers “losers” or Russia placing bounties on US troopers’ heads, you’ll not hear a peep about Obama’s controversies. The media continues to be in overdrive of their bid to promote him as a constructive, shining instance of American management. By doing this, they create a distinction with the present president, which backs up their questionable reporting on him whereas he’s been in workplace. 

Backside line? Don’t belief the media. Not in the case of Trump, and undoubtedly not in the case of their favourite movie star: Obama. 

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