Monte Kuligowski
Will the media ever get to the core of the 'Styrofoam Demigod'?
By Monte Kuligowski
Formerly hopeful enthusiasts are abandoning Barack the false messiah in droves. Our woefully unqualified president has predictably become an embarrassment among world leaders. Even some in the press are beginning to doubt the wisdom in having promoted the hysteria of "making history" over inquiry into the substance of the mystery man hastily chosen for installation.
One outside example is Rex Murphy of Canada's National Post. Murphy's recent piece, "The media's love affair with a disastrous president," opens with these words:
"As the bad economic news continues to emanate from the United States — with a double-dip recession now all but certain — a reckoning is overdue. American journalism will have to look back at the period starting with Barack Obama's rise, his assumption of the presidency and his conduct in it to the present, and ask itself how it came to cast aside so many of its vital functions. In the main, the establishment American media abandoned its critical faculties during the Obama campaign — and it hasn't reclaimed them since."
Murphy points out that the press skipped past Obama's unprecedented pretentions and asks: "when did a presidential candidate before 'address the world' from the Brandenberg [sic] Gate in Berlin?" I would add, when has a candidate ever claimed the healing of the planet and the subsiding of the sea levels via his election? When has a newcomer set up shop prior to his swearing-in complete with his own "seal of the president-elect?" When has a president-elect ever announced that he and his awe-struck fans were the ones they had been waiting for?
Allowing the pretentiousness of Obama to run wild was merely incidental to the media having created and enabled the illusion of a god-like figure in the first place — whom they endowed with a phony sacredness which prevented criticism and even ordinary vetting.
Murphy also notes how the press ignored the man's arrogance and ignorance, which the latter he calls "gaffes," citing examples of each.
As a result of ignoring everything about Obama's unsavory past, including his deplorable alliances, while going "rottweiler" on the opposition, namely Sarah Palin, Murphy concludes that the press
"gave the great American republic an untried, unknown and, it is becoming more and more frighteningly clear, incompetent figure as President. Under Obama, America's foreign policies are a mixture of confusion and costly impotence. It is increasingly bypassed or derided; the great approach to the Muslim world, symbolized by the Cairo speech, is in tatters. Its debt and deficits are a weight on the entire global economy. And the office of presidency is less and less a symbol of strength.
"To the degree the press neglected its function as watchdog and turned cupbearer to a Styrofoam demigod, it is a partner in the flaws and failures of what is turning out to be one of the most miserable performances in the modern history of the American presidency."
Murphy makes some keen observations in his piece, but he holds to a media myth that I believe will be corrected with the passage of time. The Canadian writer notes that as American journalists "tucked every" Obama embarrassment "under the blanket of their superior sensibilities, they furiously over-compensated for by their remorseless hounding of Palin — from utterly trivial e-mails, to blogger Andrew Sullivan's weird speculations about Palin's womb, musings that put the Obama 'Birther' fantasies into a realm near sanity."
The myth is namely that doubts and questions about Obama's natal records and/or constitutional eligibility are in a realm of fantasy and should not be taken seriously. Murphy uses the word "birther" which has come to signify a broad circle of skeptics; including those who insist Obama was born in Kenya; those who don't know, but want actual production of all relevant documents, not a belated and problematic internet posting; those who believe that Obama's staunch secrecy means that every anomaly should be openly resolved; and those who note that the question of whether Obama has an unbroken chain of natural allegiance to the United States (with concerns of past dual citizenship and a possible adoption by Lolo Soetoro in Indonesia) has not been addressed by a competent legal body.
What Rex Murphy does in the space of his column is to peel back the first layer of a rotten onion. Solidarity between the press and Obama has so far kept the layers intact. If the establishment news media ever get around to peeling away more layers, the squishier it will get, all the way to the unpleasant truth of the Obama core. It's more than Obama was a member of a "weird and racist" pastor's church for 20 years. It's more than the press gave Obama a pass and because of a potential double-dip recession or depression a reckoning is past due. It's even more than the man is completely incompetent.
The core of the matter is whether the entire Obama image is a complete fabrication, right down to the illusion that the man is constitutionally eligible to serve as president.
Every Obama embarrassment was "tucked away" and anyone who dared to ask questions was smothered with the media's night-night blanket. For the love of Pete Hussein, opponents weren't even allowed to say the man's middle name in public let alone question Obama's unprecedented secrecy over his basic records (vital, education, medical, hospital, passport, et al). During the campaign, the Orwellian atmosphere was such that the Missouri Truth Squad was threatening arrest for lying against the One. In an environment in which supporters (including so-called journalists) were seemingly mesmerized, no wonder it appeared to be "insane" or "crazy" to question the very foundation of eligibility for Obama's ominously emerging power.
Once the press reclaims its "critical faculties," as Murphy puts it, the light of inquiry should shine in every hidden place. Of course, the "Styrofoam demigod" has to be completely un-deified before we can ever get to the truth.
© Monte Kuligowski
September 29, 2011
Formerly hopeful enthusiasts are abandoning Barack the false messiah in droves. Our woefully unqualified president has predictably become an embarrassment among world leaders. Even some in the press are beginning to doubt the wisdom in having promoted the hysteria of "making history" over inquiry into the substance of the mystery man hastily chosen for installation.
One outside example is Rex Murphy of Canada's National Post. Murphy's recent piece, "The media's love affair with a disastrous president," opens with these words:
"As the bad economic news continues to emanate from the United States — with a double-dip recession now all but certain — a reckoning is overdue. American journalism will have to look back at the period starting with Barack Obama's rise, his assumption of the presidency and his conduct in it to the present, and ask itself how it came to cast aside so many of its vital functions. In the main, the establishment American media abandoned its critical faculties during the Obama campaign — and it hasn't reclaimed them since."
Murphy points out that the press skipped past Obama's unprecedented pretentions and asks: "when did a presidential candidate before 'address the world' from the Brandenberg [sic] Gate in Berlin?" I would add, when has a candidate ever claimed the healing of the planet and the subsiding of the sea levels via his election? When has a newcomer set up shop prior to his swearing-in complete with his own "seal of the president-elect?" When has a president-elect ever announced that he and his awe-struck fans were the ones they had been waiting for?
Allowing the pretentiousness of Obama to run wild was merely incidental to the media having created and enabled the illusion of a god-like figure in the first place — whom they endowed with a phony sacredness which prevented criticism and even ordinary vetting.
Murphy also notes how the press ignored the man's arrogance and ignorance, which the latter he calls "gaffes," citing examples of each.
As a result of ignoring everything about Obama's unsavory past, including his deplorable alliances, while going "rottweiler" on the opposition, namely Sarah Palin, Murphy concludes that the press
"gave the great American republic an untried, unknown and, it is becoming more and more frighteningly clear, incompetent figure as President. Under Obama, America's foreign policies are a mixture of confusion and costly impotence. It is increasingly bypassed or derided; the great approach to the Muslim world, symbolized by the Cairo speech, is in tatters. Its debt and deficits are a weight on the entire global economy. And the office of presidency is less and less a symbol of strength.
"To the degree the press neglected its function as watchdog and turned cupbearer to a Styrofoam demigod, it is a partner in the flaws and failures of what is turning out to be one of the most miserable performances in the modern history of the American presidency."
Murphy makes some keen observations in his piece, but he holds to a media myth that I believe will be corrected with the passage of time. The Canadian writer notes that as American journalists "tucked every" Obama embarrassment "under the blanket of their superior sensibilities, they furiously over-compensated for by their remorseless hounding of Palin — from utterly trivial e-mails, to blogger Andrew Sullivan's weird speculations about Palin's womb, musings that put the Obama 'Birther' fantasies into a realm near sanity."
The myth is namely that doubts and questions about Obama's natal records and/or constitutional eligibility are in a realm of fantasy and should not be taken seriously. Murphy uses the word "birther" which has come to signify a broad circle of skeptics; including those who insist Obama was born in Kenya; those who don't know, but want actual production of all relevant documents, not a belated and problematic internet posting; those who believe that Obama's staunch secrecy means that every anomaly should be openly resolved; and those who note that the question of whether Obama has an unbroken chain of natural allegiance to the United States (with concerns of past dual citizenship and a possible adoption by Lolo Soetoro in Indonesia) has not been addressed by a competent legal body.
What Rex Murphy does in the space of his column is to peel back the first layer of a rotten onion. Solidarity between the press and Obama has so far kept the layers intact. If the establishment news media ever get around to peeling away more layers, the squishier it will get, all the way to the unpleasant truth of the Obama core. It's more than Obama was a member of a "weird and racist" pastor's church for 20 years. It's more than the press gave Obama a pass and because of a potential double-dip recession or depression a reckoning is past due. It's even more than the man is completely incompetent.
The core of the matter is whether the entire Obama image is a complete fabrication, right down to the illusion that the man is constitutionally eligible to serve as president.
Every Obama embarrassment was "tucked away" and anyone who dared to ask questions was smothered with the media's night-night blanket. For the love of Pete Hussein, opponents weren't even allowed to say the man's middle name in public let alone question Obama's unprecedented secrecy over his basic records (vital, education, medical, hospital, passport, et al). During the campaign, the Orwellian atmosphere was such that the Missouri Truth Squad was threatening arrest for lying against the One. In an environment in which supporters (including so-called journalists) were seemingly mesmerized, no wonder it appeared to be "insane" or "crazy" to question the very foundation of eligibility for Obama's ominously emerging power.
Once the press reclaims its "critical faculties," as Murphy puts it, the light of inquiry should shine in every hidden place. Of course, the "Styrofoam demigod" has to be completely un-deified before we can ever get to the truth.
© Monte Kuligowski
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