Media Miss the Peace Prize Point

I wondered the other day how the media would spin the news that our President won the Nobel Peace Prize.

The answer was what I suspected it would be, but didn’t state in my post of October 9: In its effort to even-handedly present two sides of an inconsequential question—does President Obama deserve the Peace Prize—the news media has missed the point of this year’s award: President Obama won it for not being Bush, for being the president at the moment the U.S. has begun to slough off the bloody and short-sided unilateral bullying and the lawless abandonment of international law of the Bush years.

I don’t think I really have to prove my point that the media has focused on “Does he or doesn’t he (deserve it)?” But here goes:

• Associated Press: GOP mocks Obama’s peace prize, Russians praise it
• Los Angeles Times: Nobel Peace Prize may weigh heavily on Obama
• San Francisco Chronicle: After Nobel, what’s next for Obama – sainthood?
• Detroit Free Press: SNL mocks Obama’s peace prize win
• Toronto Star: Obama’s portfolio is empty
• The Age: Reward actions before rhetoric

And over at the New York Times, besides its even-handed article about the does-he-or-doesn’t-he controversy on Saturday and a number of Op/Ed pieces, we heard on Sunday from that broken record called Maureen Dowd who once again used a news story or trend as a springboard for bashing the Clintons.  She presented her view on the does-he-or-doesn’t-he controversy within an imaginary dialogue in which President Clinton expresses enraged envy that President Obama won the award and he didn’t.   She just completely makes it up.

For those who care, here are some other recent Clinton-bashings by Ms. One-Trick-Pony:

• Let the Big Dog Run
• Men Behaving Madly
• The Devil Wears Crocs
• Where the Wild Thing Is
• Can Hillary Cry Her Way Back to the White House?

And what side do I support in the “does he or doesn’t he” non-controversy?: The Nobel committee told us why they did it and why Obama, as the symbol of the U.S.A., deserves the award.  In this instance, not being Bush is quite a lot, and enough.