Obama at the Gym: Yet Another Reason to Despise the Media for Their Abominable Coverage of the Presidential Race
As if it weren’t enough that some in the media are turning the election into a referendum on Obama, thereby sparing McCain anything resembling serious scrutiny, and that the media are generally:
– holding Obama to a much higher standard than they are McCain, emphasizing Obama’s nuanced policy shifts (and calling them opportunistic flip-flops) while letting McCain get away with flipping and flopping all over the place, pandering to different audiences, on issues like Iraq and immigration, and showing utter cluelessness on others, like health care and the economy;
– regurgitating without qualification or explanation Republican smears of Obama (he’s an opportunist, an elitist, an egotist, a terrorist-coddling closet Muslim who burns the flag and fist-bumps his Black Power wife, etc.); and
– sensationalizing even the most minute aspects of the race, and especially everything having to do with Obama, portraying every incident, however insignificant, as some sort of scandal;
as if all that weren’t enough, the media are now targeting Obama’s exercise habits.
Yes, you read that correctly: exercise habits.
At ABC News’s Political Radar blog, Sunlen Miller reports that “[w]hile Obama spent 91 minutes at a campaign event yesterday, the Illinois Senator spent a total of 188 minutes in the gym yesterday — making three separate stops to Chicago gyms over the course of one day.”
How is this news? It isn’t. But Miller’s reporting is, in a word, breathless, grasping for story where there isn’t one and for sensationalism where there isn’t any: “Obama left the East Bank Club at 9 pm last night. A mere 11 hours later he was back in the gym again on Thursday morning.”
Wow.
Bush gets away with being a workout maniac, and with chopping down trees and clearing brush and whatever the hell else he does at that ranch of his, and is celebrated for it (contra the Big Mac-stuffing Clinton), but Obama…
Well, there must be something wrong with him, what with this suspicious gym-related behavior and all: “But for reporters following Senator Obama as he strolled in and out of gyms six times over the course of one day — his multiple visits raised a few eyebrows — with even a campaign aide cracking a smile as the third gym stop of the day was announced.”
Uh-huh. Sure.
Maybe he just likes working out. And playing basketball. Maybe it’s just time away from the media glare and the rigors of the campaign. Or maybe, smiles cracking, it’s time for some out-of-sight campaign-related work (like picking a veep). Given the ubiquity of the media these days, after all, the gym is one of the few places where he would have any privacy.
Next up: Brian Williams on Obama’s latest bowel movement. Did it live up to expectations?
(Cross-posted from The Reaction.)
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9 Responses to “Obama at the Gym: Yet Another Reason to Despise the Media for Their Abominable Coverage of the Presidential Race”
Obama is a SISSY and his handlers are trying to whoop him into shape.
Well said. Obama gets 10 times the scrutiny Mccain gets. If McCain makes a gaffe or says something inappropriate, or misnames a country, it's just “McCain being “McCain”. It's like the MSM has turned into TMZ.
I don’t have the numbers at my fingertips, but I seem to remember Obama’s positive news coverage was about 73%, while McCain’s was less than 30%.
No matter. It’s just great to see a flag-burning Muslim enjoying an American sport.
(Was he at a gym or some sort of “training camp”)
Honestly how do you think the GWB apologist have felt for 7 long years defending Bush and whining about unfair treatment only to be met with louder boos and defamation.
Gosh Obama hasnt even been officially nominated and your already whining about his treatment. Its going to be a long 4 years for you Obama faithful.
That Obama is thorough — I never would have thought of going after the gym vote. And apparently he has a much better chance there than in a bowling alley, lol!
I think the media is so afraid of being called biased toward Obama (admit it: he got a lot of praise during the primaries), that they want to look everywhere now for anything and everything.
Which, when you think about it, turns out to just be another way of showcasing him since half the stuff “found” these days turns out to be ludicrous.
Eh, coverage in the media turns out to be one big flip-flop after another. I think closer to the nominations or just after, we might see a switch to constant reports about something going on with McCain.
The Halprining of the media. The corporate heads must have thought that this election the coverage would be based on the cotton candy, shallow and nauseating style of Mark Halprin. The corporations favorite idea of what a real political journalist should be like.
Actually in 2000 when Bush was a new comer and people didnt hate him yet, the press followed him on bike rides and jogging trips quite regularly. Have you noticed that Barak Obama is 45 and not a jogger or an exerciser.
They are trying to cash in on the fact that McCain is old and that he does not exercise. The trips to the gym are for a reason and they are so transparent. But hey thats politics.
The media, obviously supporting Obama and conducting a separate Obama campaign this year (despite what the lunatic fringe left may claim), are shameless.