Ep. 125: Obama-Era Media Failures We Shouldn't Rehash Under Biden (Part I)

President-elect Joe Biden has promised what he calls a return to "decency" and "unity," and American media has broadly characterized his victory over Donald Trump as, in the words of New York Times columnist Charles Blow, "The Third Term of the Obama Presidency." Many of the same holdovers — Samantha Power, Antony Blinken, Michèle Flournoy, Bob McDonald, Jake Sullivan, Susan Rice, Sally Yates, John Kerry and many in the revolving think tank, consulting outfits, marketing firms, undersecretary advisor world are expected to be back into the White House come January 20, 2021.

While they have many obvious superficial differences, the Obama and Biden White Houses will more or less borrow from the same playbook: slick, marketing-focused, technocratic, centrist, hawkish maintainers of the neoliberal status quo. As such, many lessons can be learned from the media’s coverage of the Obama White house and what mistakes not to repeat again.

From Obama’s prosecution of foreign occupations to directing dirty wars, supporting the destruction of Yemen to running a drone strike regime, pushing austerity dogma to continue the brutal war on drugs, inhumane immigration enforcement to many routine cruel and violent policies — because they lacked the partisan hook and sadistic fervor of Trump — were largely ignored, downplayed, or soft pedaled by U.S. media from 2009 to the beginning of 2017.

This is Part I of a two-part episode breaking down these "media mistakes" - major areas where the American press failed to hold the most powerful person in the world to account. We explore how the Obama era may provide a blueprint of what we may expect under the upcoming Biden administration and how activists can get ahead of these failures before they inevitably manifest.

Our guest is Peter Hart, National Communications Manager for Food & Water Watch.

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Guest

Peter Hart is National Communications Manager for Food & Water Watch. Previously he was Activism Director for Fairness and Accuracy In Reporting (FAIR) for 15 years, as well as the co-producer and co-host of FAIR's weekly radio show CounterSpin.

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Show Notes

BuzzFeed’s Obama Coverage Is 99 Percent Uncritical–and Borderline Creepy

Adam Johnson | June 30, 2016 | FAIR

Obama’s Drug War

Michelle Alexander | December 9, 2010 | The Nation

Obama Is Letting the Drug War Rage on Pointlessly

Adam Bates | August 11, 2016 | TIME

Joe Biden and the kinder, gentler war on drugs

Abraham Gutman | October 22, 2020 | The Philadelphia Inquirer

The Untold Story: Joe Biden Pushed Ronald Reagan To Ramp Up Incarceration — Not The Other Way Around

David Stein | September 17, 2019 | The Intercept

Obama's Legacy of Impunity for Torture

Adam Serwer | March 14, 2018 | The Atlantic

Social Security Cuts Are Media’s ‘Center’

Peter Hart | April 16, 2013 | FAIR

Cutting Social Security and Medicare? That’s the ‘Middle’

Peter Hart | April 8, 2013 | FAIR

Journalists Who Relayed GOP’s Deficit Moaning Owe Us Apologies

Adam Johnson | December 23, 2017 | FAIR

Obama Has Always Been Cool with Taking Wall Street Cash

David Dayen | April 27, 2017 | VICE

After Failing to Prosecute Bankers, Obama Cashes In With Wall Street Speeches

Jake Johnson | September 18, 2017 | Common Dreams

Return of the Obama Economists

Editorial Board | November 30, 2020 | The Wall Street Journal

Obama Is The 44th U.S. President; Now What?

Linton Weeks | November 4, 2008 | NPR

Obama Reluctant to Look Into Bush Programs

David Johnston and Charlie Savage | Jan. 11, 2009 | The New York Times

Biden hopes to avoid divisive Trump investigations, preferring unity 

Carol E. Lee, Kristen Welker and Mike Memoli | November 17, 2020 | NBC News

Stop Scapegoating: Why Obama Should Stick to His Guns on Torture Prosecutions

David S. Broder | April 26, 2009 | The Washington Post

Tea Party Avoids Divisive Social Issues

Kate Zernike | March 12, 2010 | The New York Times

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Transcript

For a full transcript of this episode, go here.

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