I was disappointed to hear Barack Obama take a gratuitous cheap shot at blogging and Twitter in today's otherwise moving and eloquent memorial for Walter Cronkite at Lincoln Center in New York City earlier today.
After admonishing his media-celebrity audience about the decline of good journalism in our era - itself questionable, because there is lots of good journalism being practiced, along with the bad, as it ever has been - the President went on to wonder if Walter would "have been able to cut through the murky noise of the blogs and the tweets" to get the truth and tell it the American people.
That's an odd statement indeed coming from someone who has by and large benefited enormously from the truth and opinions expressed by many bloggers and tweeters, especially during the 2008 campaign. No doubt Obama is aggrieved by the garbage that has proliferated on some right-wing blogs, but attacking the process (blogging) rather than the content (the lies spread about Obama's health care reforms, for example), badly missed the point.
And that point is that blogging, Twitter, and what I call "new new media" (new new, because they improve on just new media by making consumers producers) have enhanced the democratic process, by giving far more voice to the people than we had in Walter Cronkite's day.
I say this as someone who admired Walter Cronkite, who enthusiastically voted for Obama, who strongly supports his health care reforms, and who frequently blogs and tweets about this.
Links:
transcript of Obama's speech
my book, New New Media
Walter Cronkite Reaches the Cosmos
5 comments:
Wow. That is surprising to learn Obama said that during his speech at Cronkite's service today. You're exactly right. His campaign did benefit greatly last year from passionate & prolific bloggers, such as yourself and many, many others. Talk about biting the hands that help feed someone..
He shouldn't be wasting time wondering if Cronkite would've been able to hack it in today's media atmosphere. Instead, he should focus on how (or if) HE will be "able to cut through the murky noise of the blogs & the tweets", later tonight when he addresses the country...in order to express his views & truths to the American people.
Blogging has long been a target of opportunistic politicians. What upsets me more is the lumping togethr of blogging, something that has indeed enhanced the democratic process, with tweeting, which is a superficial function of vanity.
ca - "superficial function of vanity"? - tell that to the Iranian protestors back in June. Our own State Department thought the twitters of these protestors were so important, the State Dept asked Twitter to postpone a scheduled shutdown.
Just a Passerby: well said!
I think Obama was hurt by conservative blogging more than he was helped by liberal bloggers. Obama was much easier to expose than McCain.
I caught that, too. It was a missed opportunity to compliment bloggers while still outlining the need for journalists of Crokite's calibre.
Post a Comment