WaPo ombudsman: Maybe we should have scrutinized Obama’s record more
Deborah Howell, Post ombudsman from 2005 through 2008, said at the end of her tenure that “some of the conservatives’ complaints about a liberal tilt [at The Post] are valid.”
I won’t quibble with her conclusion. I think she was right. I read all of The Post’s lengthier, meatier stories on Obama published from October 2006 through Election Day 2008. That was about 120 stories, and tens of thousands of words, including David Maraniss’s 10,000-word profile about Obama’s Hawaii years, which I liked.
I think there was way too little coverage of his record in the Illinois Senate and U.S. Senate, for example, with one or two notably good exceptions. But there were hard-hitting stories too, even a very tough one on Michelle Obama’s job at the University of Chicago Medical Center.
And that’s what The Post needs to do in covering his reelection campaign this year: be hard-hitting on his record and provide fresh insight and plenty of context to put the past three rough years into perspective.
Blowback
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He didn’t have a record. No executive experience. Nothing. Asking a butcher to do brain surgery.
Paul-Cincy on January 21, 2012 at 2:18 PM
Don’t hold your breathe.
bgibbs1000 on January 21, 2012 at 2:19 PM
…….
YA F@#$@#$ THINK????!!!!!!
Hawkins1701 on January 21, 2012 at 2:19 PM
“And that’s what The Post needs to do in covering his reelection campaign this year: be hard-hitting on his record and provide fresh insight and plenty of context to put the past three rough years into perspective”
BWHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!!!111!1!!!!!!
BallisticBob on January 21, 2012 at 2:22 PM
There’s still time. Start scrutinizing his record NOW!
Fallon on January 21, 2012 at 2:23 PM
So the ombudsman promised questions…he didn’t how subjective or agenda-driven the answers his paper gives would be.
Sgt Steve on January 21, 2012 at 2:24 PM
Wow, talk about closing the barn door…after the horses ended up in CHina…
Of course, this could be just smoke…”We messed up last time…we’re gonna do a REAL good job on the current crop so we don’t want to hear any bit$hing about it”
Pri*ks….
BigWyo on January 21, 2012 at 2:24 PM
It’s not a hard thing to scrutinize: “Present”
Fletch54 on January 21, 2012 at 2:24 PM
And it 2016 the WaPo will run an article about how, maybe, they should have scrutinized obozo’s record as President more.
Flange on January 21, 2012 at 2:25 PM
Good luck getting a whole bunch of information about bho’s past. bho has spent millions seeing to it there is NO paper trail anywhere!
L
letget on January 21, 2012 at 2:25 PM
Timing is indignant.
Schadenfreude on January 21, 2012 at 2:25 PM
Ya’ think!?
Oh wait:
Now they are going to go over Obama’s opponent with a microscope. And praise Obama all day long.
cozmo on January 21, 2012 at 2:25 PM
For instance, we failed to ask candidate Obama what was the most enchanting part of running for president. Tsk. Tsk.
Ted Torgerson on January 21, 2012 at 2:26 PM
Snowball, hell, etc..
BallisticBob on January 21, 2012 at 2:26 PM
So, uhm, what’s stopping them at this point?
SouthernGent on January 21, 2012 at 2:26 PM
It’s WAPO. They’d only spin it in favor of Obama.
jeanie on January 21, 2012 at 2:26 PM
…but since we did not scrutinize Obama enough during the 2008 primary, we will make it up to you guys by over-scrutinizing the 2012 primary candidates!
HawaiiLwyr on January 21, 2012 at 2:28 PM
If journalistic malpractice could ever be considered a capital offense deserving of summary execution then the election of Barack Obama with the full backing of the media would be it.
turfmann on January 21, 2012 at 2:28 PM
Think this pretty much sums it up:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TIMrFpnfvyI&feature=related
RedNewEnglander on January 21, 2012 at 2:29 PM
Last I read, Vera Baker is still alive.
Dusty on January 21, 2012 at 2:29 PM
“Liberal media bias is a myth perpetuated by Foxnews, Americans for Prosperity, and other racists!” -Lib
visions on January 21, 2012 at 2:33 PM
“Maybe we should start doing our jobs, even though those stupid wingnuts keep pointing out how we aren’t.”
Jim Treacher on January 21, 2012 at 2:34 PM
nice list you got there…wake me when you get to it…
winston on January 21, 2012 at 2:36 PM
Ombudsman: “We should have done our jobs in the 1st place. Or to put it another way: DERP!!!!“
Optimus Prime on January 21, 2012 at 2:37 PM
How about the $64,000 gift to Rezko’s wife that’s not reported on Obama’s federal gift tax returns–the facts of which were reported in a WaPo story in 2007?
Please explain how the Obamas’ seller knocked $300,000 off his asking price for the house he sold them…in a seller’s market?
BuckeyeSam on January 21, 2012 at 2:44 PM
OK, I was off. More like asking a pastry chef to do brain surgery.
Paul-Cincy on January 21, 2012 at 2:48 PM
*facedesk*
Now, NOW they say these things?
Yakko77 on January 21, 2012 at 2:49 PM
I agree the WaPo wrote a very tough article about Michelle Obama’s job at Uof Chicago hospital.
Here’s the problem: Axelrod, Jarrett, Michelle, and Sherr were all part of that hospital job. They all went to the White House with Barack Obama. But none of what they did at UofC ever came up when Obama spent his two years trying to overhaul our health care system.
Nobody asked him about the craptastic, expensive job his closest advisors did while they were working in the health care sector. Nobody asked him why we should trust their judgement. It simply has never been brought up again.
MayBee on January 21, 2012 at 2:51 PM
The link to the WaPo story unfortunately leads to the printer-reader version without the Comments, but I found the original. Deathly silence in the Comments section; this story has been up since Friday but there have only been 16 responses.
One does stand out, however. After reading this I need a new keyboard.
LOL
Del Dolemonte on January 21, 2012 at 2:54 PM
I can see the questions now:
Mr. President, considering the failure of Solyndra, have you been able to place the blame on the GOP or Bush yet, or do you need our hard-hitting investigative sections to do it for you?
Mr. President, why do you think Bush destroyed the economy while he was in office….do you think it was to ensure the first black president would be a complete, utter failure, and as a follow up, have you asked the Attorney General to look into the possibility that Bush committed a hate crime?
Mr. President, do you always wear a helmet when you ride your bike?
Etc….
BobMbx on January 21, 2012 at 2:54 PM
Just like Charlie Brown and the football, Republicans continue to go to the media and ask that they please, please just be a little fairer next time, OK?
What we need is a candidate like Reagan who will bypass the media. Gingrich (“great job moderating John King” ain’t the one to do it.) Only Palin circa 2008-2009 held this promise, but now even she’s reduced to reciting establishment talking points on FOX.
Sigh.
sauldalinsky on January 21, 2012 at 2:55 PM
They never owned the property. Their house was owned by a real estate trust (horror! capitalism!). Rezco gave the strip to the trust, which of course looks like tax fraud in and of itself.
Another unexplained problem is that the Obama’s paid some $3k in property taxes and nobody knows why. They didn’t have any listed property, and yet they paid taxes.
chimney sweep on January 21, 2012 at 2:56 PM
Wow.
BobMbx on January 21, 2012 at 2:57 PM
D’oh!
cmsinaz on January 21, 2012 at 3:00 PM
hmmm, I wonder if the standing ovations Gingrich is getting when he takes the media to the woodshed could have anything to do with this enlightenment?
Flora Duh on January 21, 2012 at 3:05 PM
ding ding ding
cmsinaz on January 21, 2012 at 3:05 PM
Our fourth estate follows their orders well, don’t they?
Flora Duh on January 21, 2012 at 3:09 PM
Yeah – I caught that, too. Whatta dey think, we’re stupid..?
affenhauer on January 21, 2012 at 3:11 PM
No gonna happen.
Mimzey on January 21, 2012 at 3:14 PM
landlines on January 21, 2012 at 3:26 PM
Del, the Post was a big cheerleader for the invasion of Iraq. That is the club that the Left has been beating it with since 2004. But it was hardly pro-Bush on anything else. Dana Priest should be in prison for her dangerous breaches of national security during Bush’s second term. The Post also breathlessly covered Cindy Sheehan and her stupid protests.
rockmom on January 21, 2012 at 3:29 PM
What a surprise, liberals protecting liberals and admitting the obvious after it’s too late.
The media did their best for Democrats for many decades. Now the people know them for what they are and the people are paying less and less attention to the biased media every day.
RJL on January 21, 2012 at 3:47 PM
Well, I guess the Washington Post can start playing a little hardball with the Obama over his failed record, starting right now. But as many posters have said, it ain’t gonna happen.
BTW – I just talked to my thirty-one year old niece who is a dermatologist physician’s assistant and she says that the cut in funding for Medicare physician compensation will probably result in her firm’s refusal to accept medicare patients.
SC.Charlie on January 21, 2012 at 3:55 PM
Cindy Sheehan is still protesting and professing that she has paid any income taxes in years. Hello, anyone home at the IRS? It sounds like she is in need of a tax audit. Will the Washington Post please keep us posted on this subject? I am more interested in her tax returns than Mitt Romney’s returns. I am quite sure that he has paid all the taxes that the current law requires.
SC.Charlie on January 21, 2012 at 4:39 PM
Cluebat to WaPo: For a more scholarly discussion of the phenomenon, read A Slobbering Love Affair: The True (And Pathetic) Story of the Torrid Romance Between Barack Obama and the Mainstream Media.
Terp Mole on January 21, 2012 at 5:27 PM
Spare us Ombudsboy, no one believes you.
WaPo – just like your buddies at ABC, CBS, NBC, CNN, MSNBC, the NYT, the LAT, etc., etc. – did everything you could to help Obama in 2008, and you know full well that you’ll do it again this year. May as well save the pixels trying to pretend otherwise.
This feigned remorse over lost credibility is truly nauseating. You blew him, now swallow.
Blacksheep on January 21, 2012 at 5:50 PM