In a recent interview with NPR, President Obama blamed the media for American concerns about the growing power of ISIS as they establish a physical caliphate in the middle east, amass weapons, vehicles and even aircraft, and engage in a two-front war involving their local ground invasions and international terrorism. From Hot Air:
“If you’ve been watching television for the last month, all you have been seeing, all you have been hearing about is these guys with masks or black flags who are potentially coming to get you,” he said in the NPR interview. “So I understand why people are concerned about it.”
“Look, the media is pursuing ratings,” he added later. “This is a legitimate news story. I think that, you know, it’s up to the media to make a determination about how they want to cover things.”
Yes, it is the fact that people hear about those things that makes them bad, not the fact of those things themselves. Just like Americans are responsible for terrorists hating us, the American media are responsible for us caring that they hate us. Definitely not part of the problem? Anything Obama has done.
This might be news to people in the news. After eight years of carrying water for Obama, he's just throwing it back in their faces. But some in the press are simply in too deep to let it bother them, including CNN's Carol Costello, who not only accepts the President's premise but lays out an awesome strawman for him to slay:
"President Obama is urging Americans to keep things in perspective. In a sit-down interview with NPR the President said he understands why people are worried but there's no reason to panic, because groups like ISIS are not able to destroy the United States."
'Destroy the United States'? That's the standard? As long as the United States is not DESTROYED there's nothing to fear? Yes, do let's keep some perspective, shall we?
When you're being gunned down at a Christmas party by some scumbag yelling "Alahu Akbar', get some perspective. Hollywood will still be making Star Wars movies the next day, after all, so relax. If your son is a Marine Corps recruiter and is murdered while performing his duties by an ISIS killer with an Islamic axe to grind, rest easy. Your son may be dead, but Obama can still golf in Hawaii. Get some perspective you guys! Obama's perspective.
Costello, like most media elites, salivates in anticipation, and savors the moment of each opportunity to sneer at "fearful" Americans or "fear-mongering" people who sound the alarm about terror (but not global warming because that kind of fear mongering is hunky-dory), and she is happy to carry that message for Dear Leader even when he is indicting her own profession. Because that's how cults work.
So in a small way, the President is right. The press does have some responsibility for American concerns about ISIS. In serving as lapdogs for Obama, they've enabled ISIS to thrive and grow.
