President Obama signs woman's chest at event!

[Dill]

(03-11-2019, 09:24 AM)GMDino Wrote: Wait, sorry...that was President Trump.  Because the Obama's were "classless". Forcursing and allowing their children to listen to rap among other things.

(03-11-2019, 09:45 AM)michaelsean Wrote: So we are allowed to bring up Obama?  Since I never called the Obama's classless, and said I feel he is probably a very good husband and father, I feel OK saying I don't care about this.  Could I see Reagan doing this?  Never, but this still ranks near the bottom of stuff I care about.

From a socio-historical perspective, I do see value in remembering and contrasting press treatment of presidents.

There is one sector of the press which uncritically circulated all manner of conspiracies and RUMORED crimes about Obama and the Clintons; and when these led to investigations which didn't pan out, this sector encouraged the narrative that they "got away with it."  Especially regarding the Clintons, we heard of one standard for them and another for everyone else. The MSM press was accused of "ignoring" stories when it dismissed rumors and conspiracies with no factual support.

Then when we get a president whose PUBLIC words and behavior embarrass the nation and justify daily criticism, this same sector of the media ascribes the criticism to "hate" and a desire of elites to unelect the people's choice. "Leftists" hate Trump because they hate America. They hate that he "revels" in his wealth and "never learned to keep his real opinions to himself."  (The divisive bigotry of those real opinions is apparently not a real problem in someone elected to represent the nation. ) https://outline.com/TFnHMu.  

In both cases, the evaluation of the president is separated from empirical grounding. The intended audience appears to measure the behavior of the actors involved largely on basis of press rhetoric about them, rather than on that grounding.