Former Obama chief TOTUS programmer Jon Favreau whines about “When Journalists Attack,” in Tina Brown’s Daily Beast, which exists largely because its predecessor publication drove itself out of business after it transformed itself into a house organ for Obama in 2008:
I would be horrified if we actually had another president like Nixon who abused these new tools to destroy his political enemies, or worse. But I would be even more horrified if our government failed to stop an attack that killed thousands because an email or phone call detailing the plot wasn’t discovered, or a leak jeopardized a U.S. asset inside a rogue state or terrorist organization, robbing us of critical information that could have saved lives.
Gee, wait’ll Favreau discovers Obama siccing the IRS on his enemies.
If you saw the news at any point in the last month, chances are that you heard Barack Obama compared in some way to Richard Nixon and the Watergate scandal (BuzzFeed has my favorite compilation here). A quick and admittedly unscientific Google search on the comparisons turns up 1.7 million hits, and they are not limited to right-wing media or Republican politicians. Partisan and nonpartisan journalists across the political spectrum casually and frequently linked Obama to Nixon over and over again, this publication included.
I think what Favreau means is that he seeks “Peace in Our Time,” the unfortunate words he put into his boss’s mouth in January of 2013, setting the tone for his disastrous second term.
Many in the press have called for a national debate on privacy and security. And in the coming weeks, issues like climate change, immigration, and any number of controversial Supreme Court decisions will be added to the list. But national debates don’t just require a willing public, President, and Congress—they require a willing press that is able to report with a sense of nuance, patience, and perspective.
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