Did you hear Al Gore hates Obama? And, why we (should) hate the news media

James Fallows looks to updating his 15-year-old Atlantic cover story “Why Americans Hate the Media,” first by looking at the Jon Stewart/Chris Wallace exchange. But, then he sees a good reason in today’s Hot Story, that, OMG, Al Gore Hates President Obama:

UPDATE: If someone were starting on a mid-2011 update, an item from today’s news could be a case study. Al Gore’s new essay in Rolling Stone, about impending climate disasters, is mainly about the failure of the media to direct adequate attention to the issue, and to call out paid propagandists and discredited phony scientists. That’s where the essay starts, and what it covers in its first 5,000 words. The second part, less than half as long, and much more hedged in its judgment, is about the Obama Administration’s faltering approach on climate change. But of course the immediate press presentation on the essays has been all “OMG Gore attacks Obama!” For instance at Slate,* TPM, NY Mag, the AP, and the Atlantic’s own Wire site.

….

The reaction to Gore’s essay illustrates the pattern: from his point of view, it’s one more (earnest) attempt to say “Hey, listen up about this problem!” As conveyed by the press, it’s one more skirmish on the “liberals don’t like Obama” front, and one more illustration of the eyes-glazing-over trivia and details about melting icebergs and scientific disputes.

When I caught the item this morning, it was on CNN and titled “Gore: ‘Obama has Failed.’” Of course, I thought ‘Really?,’ then discovered they cut the “On Climate Change” from the quotation. Then, after looking at the essay in question, I’m astounded that this was the takeaway.

It’s almost hilarious: An essay that criticizes the news media for ignoring climate change is covered in a way that obviously and purposefully ignores climate change.

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