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Obama and Cable News: It's Love/Hate

Prez can't stand the "chatter" that obfuscates real issues

By Harry Kimball, Newser Staff

Posted Sep 25, 2009 2:28 PM CDT

(Newser) – President Obama tries to downplay the “cable chatter” of the 24-hour news networks, but his frustration with them is as old as their fascination with him. “I think a lot of this stems from the election,” press secretary Robert Gibbs tells Politico, when some donors “would get fixated by cable and get freaked out and start calling.” It continues today, as the president greets sound bites and snap judgments—rather than his preferred reasoned debate—with “a lot of eye-rolling,” according to one staffer.

Obama may be unique in his fixation on the cable networks—“feels like WWF wrestling,” “day-to-day chatter,” “TV loves a ruckus,” he’s said—but the phenomenon is not new. “There’s always been frustration among presidents about what’s happening in the media,” a scholar says, though cable is “particularly personal, and it’s particularly endless. So there’s some validity to what he says.”

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President Barack Obama. (AP Photo)

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He’s talking mostly about the ideological-leaning networks rather than CNN. He’s talking about the back and forth and sometimes one-sidedness that you might get on other cable channels. - CNN executive, on Obama

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COMMENTS

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Showing 3 of 12 comments

JonmarkP

Sep 26, 2009 12:41 PM CDT

There is no "left" in this country - none at all. Left in the United States means Center anywhere else. It's a shame.

cornelison

Sep 26, 2009 2:25 AM CDT

I hope that you're not thinking of traveling abroad. Your attitude is one of the reasons why 9/11 happened. Any hate for America by foreigners was hate against American govt. policy. Unfortunately, some foreigners didn't understand this & the previous administration didn't care.

cornelison

Sep 26, 2009 2:16 AM CDT

Too much corporate control in the media. That's what my family told me before I ever looked into it. They were correct. The internet has not only widened discourse but allows each of us to debate our rightful points of view.

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Obama and Cable News: It's Love/Hate