Fawning Press Glosses Over Obama's Agenda

Barack Obama has enchanted the media more than any president this side of Jack Kennedy, writes Robert Samuelson of the Washington Post. A recent Pew study concluded that Obama had enjoyed “substantially more positive media coverage,” than either Bush or Clinton during their first months. “On the whole, this is not healthy for America,” Samuelson opines, because Obama’s vast agenda isn’t being questioned.

Obama “envisions the greatest growth of government since Lyndon Johnson.” But no one’s asking if those proposals are practical. “All ‘reforms’ do not succeed,” Samuelson points out. “The press should not be hostile, but it ought to be skeptical.” Instead it’s fawning, in part because Obama is popular, but mostly for one simple reason: “Most journalists like Obama.” (More Barack Obama stories.)