vivian shaw

The POTUS at the SOTU

I’m often suspicious of what I think could be called pop journalism (not to be confused with a Canadian magazine on media and pop culture), a style of personality- and entertainment-oriented reporting that seems to have gained traction in mainstream news media over the past few years. I am talking about news writing that seems more concerned with selling a “mood” than providing readers with the most robust and educational information possible.

That said, I really enjoyed David Brooks and Gail Collins’ joint column piece in today’s NYTimes.com on Obama’s State of the Union Address this evening. Brooks has fun teasing Collins on the Democrats’ sinking PR effort and she joins in the banter before they get into greater depth about the more serious stuff.

David Brooks: Gail, I’m hoping to nudge you to release your secret plan to revive the Obama presidency. I know you’ve been keeping it in your desk drawer, under the explanation for why God allows evil to exist in the world and how consciousness emerges from the brain, and I was hoping if I asked real nice you might share it with me.

The phrase “It’s funny, because it’s true” applies here. Many Americans who voted for Obama (and perhaps a number of non-Americans who supported his PR internationally), are disappointed with his first year and there’s plenty of reason for this. Guantanomo’s still open, healthcare reform doesn’t include a public option and it’s held up in Congress anyway, we are not only still in Iraq, we are surging in Afghanistan, and potentially expanding our military presence in the Caribbean via Haiti. Jobs are still shedding every month and in this coldest of winters, we’re moving toward a spending freeze on basic, necessary services such as education!

How could we dare curb spending on education when “Nationwide, 44 million adults, or 23% of the population, struggle at the lowest levels of literacy”? _{(Citation taken from The Literacy Assistance Center in NYC, from a study by the National Institute for Literacy.)}

I’ll be interested to hear Obama’s take on this tonight.

Another article: Paul Krugman’s short and bleak assessment of Obama’s spending freeze.