We heard the news this week that in just nine months as president, Barack Obama tied the number of times he went out golfing that George W. Bush accomplished in two years, ten months. Yet whom did the media portray as a “golfing playboy?”

Yes, Obama has faced some criticism for his love of the links, but not for goofing off – no, he’s been criticized for going out on all-male sports outings (dutifully corrected this past weekend when chief domestic policy advisor Melody Barnes joined him). Honestly, is the sex of Obama’s golf buddies really the most important thing some people have to worry about?

The point here is not necessarily how much time Obama has spent golfing, playing basketball or going on pricey dates with his wife (although yes, much could be said). The point is the perception of these activities through the lens of the media. And right now, things couldn’t be rosier for the Oval Office.

In just the first 60 days of the Obama administration, the positive media coverage of Obama was nearly twice that of George W. Bush, with Bill Clinton not faring much better in comparison. One political analyst has an idea as to why there’s so much more positive coverage of Obama:

“There may well be almost an unconscious effort on the part of the media to give Obama a bit more slack because he is more likable, because he is the first African-American president. That plays into it.”

But remember back to the 2004 campaign: 57 percent of undecided voters said they would rather have a beer with Bush than with John Kerry. So Bush’s likeability factor can’t have been that disastrous.

And the self-appointed media watchdogs can’t keep going back to the historic nature of the election. The election was nearly one year ago and in politics, that’s practically a lifetime. Much has happened since then and our president’s performance, not the color of his skin, should be first and foremost in the mind of all Americans, including those who report on his every move.

Josh Gerstein of the Politico asks, “What if Bush had done that?”

A four-hour stop in New Orleans, on his way to a $3 million fundraiser

Snubbing the Dalai Lama.

Signing off on a secret deal with drug makers.

Freezing out a TV network.

Doing more fundraisers than the last president. More golf, too.

President Barack Obama has done all of those things – and more.

What’s remarkable is what hasn’t happened. These episodes haven’t become metaphors for Obama’s personal and political character – or consuming controversies that sidetracked the rest of his agenda.

It’s a sign that the media’s echo chamber can be a funny thing, prone to the vagaries of news judgment, and an illustration that, in politics, context is everything.

Context is indeed everything. Especially when you put it into the context of how the media hyped candidate Obama once he became the Democrat nominee. Few media consumers heard much about Obama mentor , communist Frank Marshall Davis; his close ties with ACORN (although we are now hearing much about that corrupt organization); his closer-than-reported relationship with former domestic terrorist Bill Ayers (who is suspected of writing Obama’s memoir) – although we heard much about the out-of-wedlock pregnancy of Sarah Palin’s teenaged daughter and whether John McCain was eligible to run for POTUS due to his being born in Panama, among other overblown scandals. No one bothered to try to look into Obama’s academic record either, something that is usually picked apart by the media when it comes to presidential candidates. (We do know, however, that John McCain graduated at the bottom of his Naval Academy class.)

We also know that when the White House began its war on Fox News, the outlet which seems to be harshest in its criticism of the White House, the rest of the big media outlets were content to sit by and watch the fur fly – only getting involved when it appeared that the administration tried to snub Major Garrett during a “pay czar” interview opportunity. If it could happen to Fox, could it eventually happen to them as well?

What it boils down to is this: The media has a lot invested in Barack Obama, as a man and as president. They helped build the legend, and their credibility is what’s at stake. If he’s a success, believe me, they’ll be tooting their own horns quite loudly. On the other side of the coin, however, his failure is their failure – and they know it full well.

Is the day of the watchdog media gone forever? We’ll have to wait and see.

 

Guest columns do not necessarily reflect the views of Accuracy in Media or its staff.

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