Obama was following Matt Lauer’s instructions
Posted by Richard on June 11, 2010
I don't usually watch any of the nightly network newscasts (bad for my blood pressure), so I didn't realize that President Obama's much-ballyhooed "kick ass" remark was apparently made at the urging of NBC's Matt Lauer. Media Research Center put it this way (via email; emphasis in original):
Lauer’s bizarre take on the Gulf oil spill was that the administration should continue to search for someone to blame, rather than to show some the desperately needed leadership that has been missing from the White House during this horrible situation.
More than 24 hours after Lauer prompted Obama to kick some a## over the oil spill disaster, Obama obliged, saying in an interview with Lauer that he was gathering information on the oil leak “so I know whose a## to kick.”
Network news outlets all salivated over the soundbite, airing it multiple times to show the world how angry Obama was over the disaster. Just days before, news anchors reported that Obama was being criticized for not conveying his anger over the nation’s greatest environmental disaster.
But with the perfect soundbite squarely in his mouth by the so-called “news” media, Obama fired back at his “critics.”
Hmm, if only President Bush had known that he needed only to drop the “A-word” to get the media’s support in the Katrina disaster …
NewsBusters noted the Lauer-Obama connection, too, as well as the eagerness of competitors like CBS to promote the NBC interview and kick-ass sound bite. I can just imagine the scene in MSM newsrooms everywhere: "Woohoo! Our guy is finally sounding tough and in control! It's about damned time!"
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