RKMBs Forums .::Important::. Politics and Current Events Is Michelle's Booty not good enough?

Media Matters: Did you hear the one about the sleazy Obama photo? Don't buy it.
July 10, 2009 10:51 pm ET
At 2:45 p.m. on Thursday, a member of the right-wing message board Free Republic posted a Reuters photo that the news wire captioned as "U.S. President Barack Obama (C) and France's President Nicolas Sarkozy (R) take their places with junior G8 delegates for a family photo at the G8 summit in L'Aquila, Italy." The Free Republic member invited other members to submit alternative captions for the photo, resulting in dozens of sexually suggestive replies, some using racist epithets.

Thirty minutes later, Internet gossip Matt Drudge promoted the same photo with the headline "Mr. President!" Drudge later revised his headline to read "Second Stimulus Package!"

About two hours later, at 5:12 p.m., the Fox News website The Fox Nation posted the picture along with the headline "Another Stimulus?" It later revised the title to read "Busted?"

Just minutes after Fox Nation's mocking of the photo, ABC News' Jake Tapper posted the photo with the headline "When In Rome...?"

Around 4 a.m., almost 12 hours after he first posted the photo, Tapper posted this message on Twitter: "that foto of POTUS seeming to be sneaking a leer is misleading, im told - video shows the moment was completely innocent." He also updated his blog post by adding "Actually, not so much" to the headline and including video of the incident. Tapper wrote in the updated post, "On first glance, the snapshot appears to show President Obama caught in a moment of less than lofty analysis. But upon looking at the video, the moment might seem to appear quite innocent -- one of those times when a picture can be misleading. The president was on a higher step and was stepping down -- so he looked down to assure his footing as the woman was walking up the stairs." He concluded: "Although: not everyone agrees. Judge for yourself."

Drudge subsequently included a link to Tapper's blog post with the headline "ABCNEWS: NO HE DIDN'T ..."

A classic example of how the right-wing noise machine works was unfolding before the American people. A non-story starts on a right-wing website and works its way into the mainstream. It usually involves Drudge, the fedora-wearing boy who cries wolf (almost daily) on the Internet, and mainstream news outlets follow his lead, offering up under-researched and factually inaccurate story lines.

Had the mainstream media done their job -- you know, checking the video to get the context from which the photo was taken -- they would have clearly seen that Obama was attempting to navigate high steps, while reaching back to help someone behind him do so as well. As Fox News host Greta Van Susteren said after airing video of the event, "Yes, a still picture can lie. And this one does."

Of course, the next morning after Van Susteren's show, the Fox & Friends crew went right back to trashing the president with lascivious speculation that was contradicted by easily accessible fact.

News segments that set the record straight are unfortunately the exception and not the rule. Fox's Van Susteren, ABC's Good Morning America, and MSNBC Live should be commended for pushing back in segments about the faux controversy. Perhaps their colleagues could learn a thing or two from their example. After all, journalists and news outlets checking the facts before running with a "story" is the least we should expect.

It's spin by Media Matters, watch the video yourself.

See you dont have to watch the video others have told you what to think.

I still think he's taking a look at the ass. And there's nothing wrong with that. It's probably one of the few things I'll ever agree with Obama about.

What I find really creepy and telling is that Media Matters thinks they need to "debunk" the "slur" that the President is a typical heterosexual male who enjoys looking at an attractive woman.

What I find really creepy and telling is that Media Matters thinks they need to "debunk" the "slur" that the President is a typical heterosexual male who enjoys looking at an attractive woman.

Besides them debunking the booty story, Fox's Van Susteren, ABC's Good Morning America, and MSNBC Live among others have also.

have you watched the ABC clip? in the video they show he is checking the little girl out, [their] commentator says he isnt, but that doesnt change whats going on in the video. if i watch a video of Pearl Harbor and say the Japanese didnt attack is that debunking the Pearl Harbor attack? Watch the video and give your honest opinion.

The Bad Company of Barack Obama (National Review)

MICHELLE

So, instead, we get glimpses. The most profound influence in his life, his wife Michelle, is notoriously less circumspect than her careful husband about where she’s coming from. Her college thesis, which Princeton tried to keep under lock and key, testifies to a race-obsessed worldview. She may have refined it, but she’s never grown out of it.

After four years at one of America’s most esteemed academic institutions, Michelle recoiled at the thought of “further integration and/or assimilation into a white cultural and social structure that will only allow me to remain on the periphery of society; never becoming a full participant.” That the sky has been the limit for her, that she has managed to ride the “periphery” from Princeton to Harvard Law School, to one of the country’s top law firms, and to a plethora of prestigious institutional positions, has not much altered her perspective. Through the windows of her mansion on Chicago’s south side, American society still appears as a caste system.

The United States, she says, is “just downright mean.” Never, prior to her husband’s presidential run, had she had a reason to feel proud of it, she told a campaign throng. But by last November, with Barack’s pursuit of the brass ring catching momentum, she suddenly got plenty proud. And confident: so much so that she was moved to tell MSNBC, “Black America will wake up and get it” -- unite and carry him over the finish line.

On Thursday's “Howard Stern Show,” comedian Sarah Silverman revealed details of a recent meeting with President Barack Obama, which she says the White House insisted she not discuss. (Oops!)

Stern asked about the meeting, prompting Silverman to interrupt: "Wait, where did you read that?"

But the cat was out of the bag.

"I'm just going to talk about it," Silverman told Stern. "I actually love our president, and I'm enjoying some nice blind faith, like the others got for eight years. And I believe in him." (Silverman made a humorous video in the lead-up to the 2008 election called "The Great Schlep" in which she encouraged Jews in Florida to vote for Obama.)

Silverman didn’t disclose when the meeting took place but said that she was able to quickly meet the president in a hotel hallway. Obama aide Reggie Love and speechwriter Jon Favreau were also in attendance.

"He shakes my hand, he goes, 'Oooooo, I'm a big fan! You're very talented! Although I turn the volume down when my girls come into the room,'" said Silverman, whose particular brand of humor is notable for its edginess and is frequently controversial.

Silverman said that Obama "jokingly" said, "Ooo, you helped me win Florida.”

"I was so nervous and excited," said Silverman, adding that the president asked what project she was working on next.

"I'm going to be naked in a movie!" Silverman nervously shot out.

Silverman said Obama turned to her agent and said, "Oh, you'll have to send me a copy of that," but added that it wasn't meant in a creepy way but more as "a gracious way to get out of" the awkwardness that Silverman had created.

The comedian planned to include the encounter in the paperback version of her book, "The Bedwetter," but when she asked the White House for a copy of a picture taken during the hallway meeting, "They said, 'For what?'" Silverman recalled. "'That was a private meeting! You can't write about that!' So I had to take it out."

The meeting remains firmly ingrained in Silverman's memory, however.

"Oh my God, he gave me a big hug," said Silverman. "His body is like a thoroughbred. It's just, like, pure muscle."

The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

"Oh my God, he gave me a big hug," said Silverman. "His body is like a thoroughbred. It's just, like, pure muscle."