This photograph has circulated all over the media in the last week. Republican, right wing, conservative, libertarian and even some liberal and democrat media outlets have criticized Obama’s favorite pastime, and felt like he was neglecting the country. Let’s have a look:
New York Times:
“WASHINGTON — He had just hung up the telephone with the devastated parents before heading in front of the cameras. Unusually emotional, President Obama declared himself “heartbroken” by the brutal murder of an American journalist, James Foley, and vowed to “be relentless” against Islamic radicals threatening to kill another American.
But as soon as the cameras went off, Mr. Obama headed to his favorite golf course on Martha’s Vineyard, where he is on vacation, seemingly able to put the savagery out of his mind. He spent the rest of the afternoon on the links even as a firestorm of criticism erupted over what many saw as a callous indifference to the slaughter he had just condemned.”
NY Post :
“Sometimes a round of golf is just a round of golf. And sometimes it reveals the essence of a man.
President Obama’s decision to hit the links and yuk it up with pals immediately after speaking about the beheading of James Foley was no ordinary mistake. Nor was it a simple gaffe.
The decision continues to cause an uproar because, like an X-ray, there is no escaping the image. It shows there is no there there.
With even his media praetorian guard appalled, the golf outing is sparking a wider understanding that Obama is hollow, empty of the routine qualities Americans expect from their president.
Simple decency and respect for Foley’s horrified parents should have been enough to sober him. If that didn’t do it, the realization that the Islamic State had declared war on America in the most gruesome fashion imaginable should have sounded a call of duty in his head.”
http://nypost.com/2014/08/24/obamas-golf-outing-after-foley-beheading-was-a-huge-mistake/
Fox News:
“
“The image of President Obama hitting a Martha’s Vineyard golf course only moments after addressing the nation on the horrific beheading of American journalist James Foley has not only drawn widespread condemnation from the press, it has those closest to the photojournalist dismayed.
Matthew VanDyke, an award-winning filmmaker who grew a bond with Foley while covering war zones, said it was “irritating” to see the pictures of Obama laughing with fellow duffers astride a golf cart even as Foley’s parents tearfully discussed their son’s murder in a news conference of their own, which was preempted briefly by the president’s address.”
“Foley, 40, who was taken hostage about two years ago while covering the civil war in Syria, was decapitated by a black-clad Islamic State fighter in a gruesome video released Tuesday. On Wednesday, Obama, on vacation with the first family, spoke briefly of the murder before racing off for a 1:06 p.m. tee time at Farm Neck Golf Club.”
I have just given three examples of media criticism regarding Obama’s favorite recreational activity. There are of course far more news sites that have a rough criticism on Obama. A simple “Obama’s golf” keyword search on Google search engine will reveal about 15.800.000 results. Other media outlets, mostly liberal and democrat like Huffington post have taken advantage of this scandal to defend Obama nd strenghten their position.
Huffington Post:
If You’re Upset About Obama’s Golf Game, Here’s Reagan Goofing Off During Major Events
“A particularly intolerable meme continues to play out in the news media and online: Apparently U.S. history began on January 20, 2009, when Barack Obama was inaugurated. In case you were unaware, President Obama is evidently the first president to take vacations; he’s the first president to play golf; he’s the first president to be photographed without a suit or tie; and he’s the first president to routinely use a teleprompter. If you believe any of that, then you’re a moron who needs to crack a good book — anything prior to the events of 2009 will do. There you’ll find that not only are Obama’s vacations and so forth in line with most previous presidents, but in terms of overall time off, he’s taken the fewest vacation days of any modern president other than Bill Clinton.”
The Village Voice:
“
In May of this year Breitbart.com breathlessly reported that someone had put up anti-Obama posters in L.A. which “coincided with the PGA Tour and poked fun at the president’s multiple golf outings.” “The president is on pace to double the 104 days he spent on the links during his first term,” reported the New York Post.
And so on, and on. Obama plus golf became right blogger shorthand for Elitist for when they were tired of calling him a Socialist. They used it without explanation as a casual slur, confident their followers would understand — for example, here’s Jeff Goldstein of Protein Wisdom talking about some damn thing: “Obama has been holding back what he believed to be a trump card for a time when the heat for some of his lawlessness and fecklessness began to pierce his air conditioned super town car and threatened to interrupt his golf outings.”
Sometimes the brethren take a break from attacking Obama’s golf to attack him for other recreational activities, like skeet shooting or pool. And in general any time he goes on vacation they subject it to microscopic analysis. But when that vacation involves golf, their tiny eyes light up.
Why? Resentment, perhaps. Often they bitterly complain, as Jonah Goldberg did in 2009, about the Liberal Media’s “double standard” in covering Bush’s time on the greens and Obama’s. Which makes this as good a point as any to note that Obama has actually taken far fewer vacation days than Bush did — as of August 4, 125 days to Bush’s 407 days, per Politifact.”
http://blogs.villagevoice.com/runninscared/2014/08/maureen_dowd_reentry_adopted_as.php
With many of the media figures rushing in and out to criticize him or to defend him you may be asking yourself: What is the truth. “Quid est veritas?”
First and foremost defending or attacking Obama is a matter of political preference. It seldom has to do anything with the truth. To understand why the media is waging an informational war over Obama’s actions we must understand that every political action has a symbol, a signification attached to it, that individuals communicate through symbols and signification, verbally or non verbally and it is used in the media as a very important and vital instrument. This is called in sociology, the Theory of symbolic interaction, developed by Herbert Blumer who states that :
“Humans act toward things on the basis of the meanings they ascribe to those things. The meaning of such things is derived from, or arises out of, the social interaction that one has with others and the society. These meanings are handled in, and modified through, an interpretative process used by the person in dealing with the things he/she encounters.”
Blumer, Herbert. Symbolic Interactionism; Perspective and Method. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall, 1969. Print.
A major symbolic perspective is assigned to Obama’s behavior mostly by right wing media and political figures and that is ,his lack of empathy, his lack of empathy towards the death of James Foley,compromise with the terrorists, his lack of empathy towards the victim of police violence in Ferguson. So, Obama speeding to his golf game right after his short speech has created numerous symbolic interpretations. (Notice the words I used “speeding”, “his game, “short speech”)
We could also speculate that Obama wanted to transmit something different through his joyful disposition and apparent lack of concern. Put into words and it would sound like this:
“We are not intimidated by terrorists and their actions, we shall not give in to fear and hate. we have to show that we are strong (read this in an obvious Obama accent, of course).
Could this be the case? Well, it is nothing more than a speculation and honestly you can adopt whichever interpretation you like.
Is there really a symbol associated with his actions? Absolutely. A president’s behavior is intensely studied by his advisers. A political figure, especially a president dos not act on his own. He has image advisers, media councilors that advise him which actions to take and what attitude to adopt. We cannot know for sure, though what symbol to assign .What is certain is that the media has transform his activity and actions into a scandal, the right wing media trying to find a breach to sabotage his image and democrat media trying to defuse this “media bomb” and render conservative media criticize as useless and ridiculous.
We can also be certain that this is a media war for power and Obama is the target. What it will surely do is that Obama’s actions will be swayed by the media response. If right wing media loses power and momentum than Obama’s behavior and actions will not be affected by the media, but if right wing media gains more power, Obama’s actions will be largely influenced. However the media war will no end here.
The democrat and liberal media will retaliate by attacking conservative media outlets stronger, striving to prove that right wing is set to incite hatred against the president.
We can learn a great deal by observing the way in which the media will influence Barack Obama’s actions and then we may be able to draw some conclusions, but to be sure we do not get entangled in the media war, in interpretations and symbolism we must not adopt any of the media perspective rather study the connections between these two variables: Obama’s political and non political actions on one side and the media conflict on the other, without being heavily influenced by any of the media perspective.
Pilate's Retort 