Media Having Trouble Finding Right Angle On Obama's Double-Homicide

[Martinus]

Media Having Trouble Finding Right Angle On Obama's Double-Homicide

WASHINGTON—More than a week after President Barack Obama's cold-blooded killing of a local couple, members of the American news media admitted Tuesday that they were still trying to find the best angle for covering the gruesome crime.

"I know there's a story in there somewhere," said Newsweek editor Jon Meacham, referring to Obama's home invasion and execution-style slaying of Jeff and Sue Finowicz on Apr. 8. "Right now though, it's probably best to just sit back and wait for more information to come in. After all, the only thing we know for sure is that our president senselessly murdered two unsuspecting Americans without emotion or hesitation."

Added Meacham, "It's not so cut and dried."

Since the killings took place, reporters across the country have struggled to come up with an appropriate take on the ruthless crime, with some wondering whether it warrants front-page coverage, and others questioning its relevance in a fast-changing media landscape.

"What exactly is the news hook here?" asked Rick Kaplan, executive producer of the CBS Evening News. "Is this an upbeat human-interest story about a 'day in the life' of a bloodthirsty president who likes to kill people? Or is it more of an examination of how Obama's unusual upbringing in Hawaii helped to shape the way he would one day viciously butcher two helpless citizens in their own home?"

"Or maybe the story is just that murder is cool now," Kaplan continued. "I don't know. There are a million different angles on this one."

So far, the president's double-homicide has not been covered by any major news outlets. The only two mentions of the heinous tragedy have been a 100-word blurb on the Associated Press wire and an obituary on page E7 of this week's edition of the Lake County Examiner.

While Obama has expressed no remorse for the grisly murders—point-blank shootings with an unregistered .38-caliber revolver—many journalists said it would be irresponsible for the press to sensationalize the story.

"There's been some debate around the office about whether we should report on this at all," Washington Post senior reporter Bill Tracy said while on assignment at a local dog show. "It's enough of a tragedy without the press jumping in and pointing fingers or, worse, exploiting the violence. Plus, we need to be sensitive to the victims' families at this time. Their loved ones were brutally, brutally murdered, after all."

Nevertheless, a small contingent of independent journalists has begun to express its disapproval and growing shock over the president's actions.

"I hate to rain on everyone's parade, but we are in the midst of an economic crisis here," political pundit Marcus Reid said. "Why was our president ritualistically dismembering the corpses of his prey when he should have been working on a new tax proposal for small businesses? I, for one, am outraged."

The New York Times newsroom is reportedly still undecided on whether or not to print a recent letter received from Obama, in which the president threatens to kill another helpless citizen every Tuesday and "fill [his] heavenly palace with slaves for the afterlife" unless the police "stop the darkness from screaming."

"President Obama's letter presents us with a classic journalistic quandary," executive editor Bill Keller said. "If we print it, then we're giving him control over the kinds of stories we choose to run. It would be an acknowledgment that we somehow give the nation's commander in chief special treatment."

Added Keller, "And that's just not how the press in this country works."

http://www.theonion.com/content/news/media_having_trouble_finding_right

[The Brain]

Paging Carlos Fuentes!

[CountDeMoney]

Do Onion stories always take two months to get to Poland?

[Josquius]

I don't get it.

[Sheilbh]

I don't get it.

The American media's pathetic and lacks the balls to ever go after Obama.

Also, slightly differently, he's difficult for satirists.  A bit like Blair really, I don't think the sanctimonious, middle class Vicar that Private Eye had really got any bite until 2001.

[Martinus]

Yeah there is a good Lexington's editorial about this in today's The Economist. That's where I got the reference for the Onion's story from, actually

[Sheilbh]

I read that.  I think the thing they're missing is that people really want it to work.  I think after the past 8 years and in the current crisis (in British terms after 18 years of Tory rule) people just really want something different.  It will inevitably be as bad and as corrupt as what it follows but that doesn't stop the initial hope and 'will-to-succeed'.

To put it in Blair terms (and he's far more Messianic than Obama) it's difficult to satirise the PM when he can get away, with no tongue in cheek, with lines like 'a new dawn has broken, has it not?'  When that sort of line is greeted with cheers not bemused grins then it's difficult for satire to work.  Give Obama a year and, hopefully, everything will be back to normal.

That Blair line is really incredible.  I remember that it was at his victory rally and, brilliantly, the sun was actually rising behind the crowd.  The next few days were very sunny (even in the Highlands).  It's also so religiously informed it's incredible that no-one had really noticed that he 'did God'.

[Martinus]

Oh, Obama is full of similar phrases. I mean "Change we can believe in" is pretty out there, unless you are a worshipper of Tzeentch, too.

[Sheilbh]

Yeah, there's no denying the over the top messianic style of his rhetoric.  But even Obama hasn't conpared his success with the rising of the sun yet :p

[DisturbedPervert]

I don't get it.

The media is totally gay for Obama.

[DisturbedPervert]

(and he's far more Messianic than Obama)

[Ed Anger]

[Berkut]

Can you imagine how creepy it would be to have paintings like that made of you?

[Ed Anger]

Can you imagine how creepy it would be to have paintings like that made of you?

I'd love to have a portrait on velvet.

[Sheilbh]

...Fair point.  But that's more that Obama fans are more weird than Blair fans.

Another Blair quote that I don't think Obama's matched may explain why his support was more level-headed: 'New Labour aims to be nothing less than the political wing of the British people as a whole.'