Obama: Free press 'frustrating' sometimes

Washington Examiner ^ | 8/3/16 | Pete Kasperowicz

[Cheerio]

President Obama on Wednesday admitted that America's free press is "frustrating sometimes," but said in the end a free press is healthy because it helps identify real problems that need to be fixed.

"[T]here have been times where I thought the press was very unfair, and I'd open up the newspaper and say, 'What?!' and I'd start arguing," he said in answer to a question he was asked at the Young African Leaders Initiative meeting on Wednesday.

"But, there have also been times where the press investigated something, and I thought, 'You know what, this is a problem,'" he said.

[conservatism_IS_compassion]

What free press?

The AP gleefully admitted that they submitted stories to the whitehouse for approval.

That is what a (singular) free press looks like: all journalists following the natural predilection of journalists to report bad news about - IOW, to criticize - “the man who is actually in the arena,” who works to a bottom line. In that speech, T. Roosevelt said, “it is not the critic who counts” - but you cannot expect critics themselves to agree with that. And journalists do not. Business incentives drive journalism into cynicism - claiming to be objective when they have excellent reason to understand that they are otherwise is cynical - and into a symbiotic relation with equally cynical socialist politicians.

All journalists have that same incentive, but in a competitive environment there used to be more of a niche for non-socialist reporting. Wire service journalism in general, and the AP in particular, make journalism ideologically homogeneous:        

People of the same trade seldom meet together, even for merriment and diversion, but the conversation ends in a conspiracy against the public . . . - Adam Smith, Wealth of Nations

Hence, my tag line . . .