Insular liberal-media cycle: Liberal columnists demand that President
Obama show "anger" over BP's oil leak, Obama promises NBC's Matt Lauer
that he's determining "whose ass to kick" and so Brian Williams -
trumpeting "this is just into us" - leads the NBC Nightly News with how
"the President showed some anger on the topic of his handling of this
spill so far."
Williams announced Monday night: "Before we get to our
correspondents, some late news tonight. Late today, Matt Lauer sat down
with President Obama in Michigan for an interview to air tomorrow
morning on Today. This is just into us. In this bit you are about to
see the President showed some anger on the topic of his handling of this
spill so far." Viewers were then treated to this clip of Obama:
I was down there a month ago, before most of these talking heads were even paying attention to the gulf. A month ago I was meeting with fishermen down there, standing in the rain talking about what a potential crisis this could be. And I don't sit around just talking to experts because this is a college seminar. We talk to these folks because they potentially have the best answers so I know whose ass to kick.
[MSNBC's Countdown made Obama's remark "Breaking News" with "OBAMA
TALKS TO EXPERTS SO HE KNOWS 'WHOSE ASS TO KICK'" plastered across the
bottom of the screen.]
Williams then plugged Lauer's session: "President Obama with Matt
Lauer. The interview airs tomorrow morning on Today."
Leading into Obama, Williams opened his June 7 newscast:
Good evening. Tomorrow will mark the 50th day of this oil spill. Tonight we'd like you to look at some pictures. The admiral in charge says the cap on top of that well is keeping up to 462,000 gallons of oil from spewing into the water, but that's a portion of the oil which can still be seen spewing into the water. It's estimated there are between 25 and 39 million gallons of oil in that gulf now. We know over a million gallons of dispersant have been sprayed or injected into that water. All the while the awful landfall of oil continues. The terrible grim toll on innocent animals, beautiful surroundings and of course the people of the region. Conservative estimates say we'll be cleaning this up until autumn and that is if they find a way to shut it off soon.
- Brent Baker is Vice President for Research and Publications at the Media Research Center. Click here [1] to follow him on Twitter.