Dear Friend and Reader,
IВ WANT TOВ start this with a little cartoon from Scott Bateman at Salon.com. The audio was taken from the actual commentary at CBS’ Early Show.В SinceВ 1998 it seems serious TV journalism left the building and was replaced with the obsessionВ forВ gossip as news. Now most folks are addicted to news as junk.В As you can see in the cartoon above, even morning news talk shows are no exception.
In the days passing the election, we find no let up withВ the latest media obsession: the Obama daughters Sasha and Malia. To be honest, asВ compelling as it is because those kids are cute, the media thrall withВ the two little girlsВ soon to occupy the White House creeps me out.
Hoping to cash in the national focus on this historic election and candidate, Disney Channel’s “Hannah Montana Show” — a favorite show of the Obama girls, offered them a cameo spot in a new “Hannah” episode. In turning downВ Disney’sВ offer, President-elect Obama said, “Generally, what makes them so charming is the fact that they’re not spending a lot of time worrying about TV cameras or politics, and we want to keep it that way.”
NowВ for those who believe that theВ media focus on the Obama childrenВ is the price for the Senator’sВ choice to run, I have this to say:В Amy Carter did not have as relentless a mediaВ lens on her as Chelsea Clinton did (nor for that matter the rude and insulting remarks from the conservative right). Jenna andВ Barbara Bush were ushered out of the media spotlight whenever possible. The choice was and is their family’s, and it appears the Obama familyВ are having none of the silly parade. In keeping with the serious nature of the times, as Batemen says, mindless chattering about the Obama girls in the middle of an economic crisis is just not appropriate.
The life of a public figure is notВ theirВ own and in this age of You Tube, that aspect is amplified by millions of clicks per day, particularly for America’s first African-American and web-savvy President. The Obama girls are perfect junk-newsВ fodder on a slow-news dayВ as witnessed in the Salon cartoon. Its going to take every hand on deck to provide these kids, as Barack and Michelle put it Sunday on 60 Minutes, a sense of “normalcy” in their soon to be fishbowl lives.