White Cop, Black Professor, Bi-Racial President: An Explosive Media Combination

Questioning the media's priorities is a full time occupation for online denizens -- and an undeniably important one, as media coverage shapes our views. The complex tensions between the press and online commentariat, the symbiosis between content producers and consumers, newsmakers and opinion-makers, the gradual morphing of one into the other, these are the defining characteristics of the modern political era.

In that vein, it's worth looking at the story of the moment, the arrest of Henry Louis Gates Jr. Here's how CBS News tells it:

The story of a white cop (who happens to conduct classes on how to avoid racial profiling) engaging in a confrontation with a black professor (who happens to be a leading scholar on race relations) is certainly newsworthy, if only because it raises so many painful -- and relevant -- issues, and does so in movie script fashion.

When President Obama weighs in, the story goes from newsworthy to explosive. Should it? Is it yet another instance of the media's lopsided priorities, where a debate over health care is overshadowed by a relatively minor police incident?

President Obama thinks so:

On NBC's Today Show, host Matt Lauer asserted that the Gates story is getting the attention that the White House hoped would be paid to the health care debate:

That is the typical self-referential game the media have played for years, where they push one issue over another then innocently ask why it's getting more focus. It's what happened with the Swift-Boating of John Kerry: major news outlets gave unlimited coverage to Kerry's attackers, then had the audacity to step back and ask why the story 'had legs.'

I know reporters love process stories, but if Lauer genuinely thought health care was more important, he could have featured it and avoided the solipsistic analysis of how one story was stepping on another. If he thought race relations and profiling were more newsworthy, he could have simply said so and prioritized that. But you can't be both the source of the news and the dispassionate observer commenting on why one story derails another, detached from your own choices.

Similarly, the online commentariat (on blogs, Twitter, media sites, YouTube, and other communication platforms) still largely depend on traditional media for news and information and tend to flow in the direction of media coverage, amplifying the chatter of the day, whether Michael Jackson, Sarah Palin or the Gates arrest.

In short order health reform will reclaim the headlines, but for the moment, we have a perfect storm for the media and online commentariat, demonstrating yet again that events and personalities, not issues, get the lion's share of U.S. media and online interest, and that seemingly minor stories can become proxies for larger debates.

Which brings me to another matter, namely, the new administration's relationship with the press. The New York Times publishes an article with the provocative title Obama Complains About the News Cycle but Manipulates It, Worrying Some:

It has become his common lament. Challenged about difficulties with his economic or legislative programs, President Obama complains about the tyranny of "the news cycle," pronouncing the words with an air of above-it-all disdain for the impatience and fecklessness of today's media culture. Yet after six months in office, perhaps no other president has been more attuned to, or done more to dominate, the news cycle he disparages. Mr. Obama has given roughly three times as many interviews as George W. Bush and held four times as many prime-time news conferences as Bill Clinton had by comparable points in their terms.

The all-Obama, all-the-time carpet bombing of the news media represents a strategy by a White House seeking to deploy its most effective asset in service of its goals, none more critical now than health care legislation. But longtime Washington hands warn that saturation coverage can diminish the power of his voice and lose public attention.

Setting aside the snide tone of the piece, it is a fact that Obama's relationship with the media is one of the centerpieces of his presidency, whether he wants it to be or not. His communications team, the best in the business, are adept at navigating the ever-accelerating news cycle, but with the growing power of the online commentariat and the recursiveness and unpredictability that comes with it, they are navigating treacherous waters, where conventional wisdom can change -- and be changed -- with unnerving ease and rapidity.

This is well illustrated by the continued ability of the right to get its message out on health care reform. It's confounding that a Democratic president with a Democratic majority and an online army coming out of the election are struggling to make the case for reforming our broken health care system. But that's exactly what's happening, thanks in part to the intransigence of some Democrats, the money and power of entrenched interests, but also to the democratization of information and opinion, the unprecedented broadening of the public discourse across the web, the advent of microblogging, combined with the skewed editorial judgments of the media, where all opinions are created equal and any opinion can instantly gain widespread visibility.

The dramatic detour from health care to race over what Obama surely believed was an innocent answer to a reporter's question about one of his friends is just one example of how the new media landscape affects the national debate -- there will be many other such examples in the days to come.

UPDATE: Obama Addresses Gates Remarks At Press Conference

Follow Peter Daou on Twitter: www.twitter.com/peterdaou

Comments

[Twentylaws]

There is nothing minor about this policing situation as evident by the increased interest of the outcome of this case by millions of Americans. Managing the police under tense situation is a concern for ALL Americans and there is nothing minor about that!

[IQ]

Headline should read..
****"White Cop, Black Professor, BLACK President,
Overwhelmingly All WHITE MEDIA, Publics Short Attention span,
Americas Unresolved Racial Albatross: An Explosive Media Combination"****

[robXdion]

People forget how "black" Obama suddenly becomes as soon as he says something that upsets white people or supports a black cause. All that "he's white too!" stuff goes out the window. And the notion that a bunch of white commentators, anchors, journalists, producers, station and news organization owners are somehow impartial observers with 2-3 blacks sprinkled into the mix is a hilarious indictment on the underlying perceptions of race in this country. As if other races may take sides, but white people won't and they're always right with their opinion on the topic?

[huntunseasun]

I'm white and was married to a black woman for 16 years, while in the Air Force. Trust me. Cops racially profile; whites racially profile and love to give incongruent looks; many just simply acting as if they had stepped in something dirty.

It's time for white people (who love to claim they have never seen or experienced such indignities and therefore, in their minds, has never happened and will never; therefore it is NT happening) to start listening to people who don't share the white life experience.

[wanttruth]

Very thought-provoking post!

[noudidnt]

Bingo!!

[AnotherMcIntosh]

"The dramatic detour from health care to race over what Obama surely believed was an innocent answer to a reporter's question ..."

Or a scripted distraction. One that was planned to be asked and answered to end the session.

According to Helen Thomas and others in early July, the Obama Administration received a head's up prior to at least one question and aswer session. Have they discontinued that practice? Was the person asking the question at the current session from Chicago? Obama is an experienced politician. If he wanted to not end the session except with some focus upon the progress being made with the health care reform or lack of it, couldn't he have taken another question or two?

[Flavor]

nightwind928, sorry but flavor don't agree with you on this, I agree the media can take some things to another level but this is exactly what we need to talk about because it gets swept under the rug to often and we go on just like some want to do (just be quiet and all will be well) not so, I believe this happened to wake us up, let me tell you, I am for police they have a trail in our family we have four and my brother is one and I respect their position but I don't respect people thinking they don't make a mistake and will even (lie), that's not the real world. We do need to talk about this and more often than not because if we communicate and listen to both sides we may just understand where people are coming from. Just my view.

[lilguy]

I really feel that the media set the president up. Over at CNN they were talking about presidential "got ya" moments. You know , when the presidents say things that makes the news media fall all over themselves repeating it, over and over and over.......... (like asking President Clinton, did he have anything to say to Monica Lewenksy after everything had come out) They all discussed what they would like to ask the president. And so that night we ended up with all of this!

[Flavor]

I agree, some of what you say because I thought it odd that that woman would ask such a question, at that time and I did wonder why, did she ask that at that time. You know one thing that flavor has really observed, is this (man) is so wicked and will stop at nothing for power but what he doesn't realize is that same wickedness will come back to him, remember the old saying, dig a ditch for me dig it big enough for you because your the one thats going to fall in it, oh! how that saying need to be repeated over and over again because people in the last year seem as though they have lost their mind, (common sense) went out the back door 30 or more years ago it needs to be dug up, resurrected from the dead because people say they got it but I see no evidence of it ponzy schemes, rabbi's convincing people to sell their organs and they in turn make over 100,000 for this persons organ. America before we get into other folks buisness, (Who wants a clean house). Just my view.

[nightwind928]

The Republicans got an early Christmas present from the media this week in the form of Professor Gates. The small town cops stupidly overreacted and Gates got belligerent about his "blackness" and the fuse was lit, taking the focus off the health care issue just long enough to insure that it never saw the early vote we had hoped for. But everybody, black, white, red, brown and yellow will take a shot to the head if healthcare keeps getting derailed on such issues. The Repubs learned that lesson during the Clinton years with the continuing onslaught of moral issues to take the focus off of healthcare during his presidency. It worked too.The Gates saga was not an important national story, the media made it into one. Stories like Gates belong on Entertainment Tonight and the cable talk shows, not on the front page and as the lead story on the 6 o-clock news, especially when we are dealing with issues as critical as these and time is of such importance. Would we have allowed the media to top the news with a story like this in the middle of the Cuban Missile crises during the Kennedy years? It's a shame what passes for intelligent journalism these days and an equal shame for the public who demands these "entertainment" pieces over substantive news.

[DemoMom]

So I want to know what we can do about it? Short of firing off emails to the Today Show (which I did this week) and maybe sending a letter to the local newspaper, I feel powerless in the face of this national trend. The media obsesses - it has ever since OJ's notorious car chase - and creates "news" just to keep itself busy. Last night, on one of the local news shows, the anchor breathlessly gushed "And now the story that everyone is talking about across the nation" and went on to talk about the Gates story. I'm sorry, but nobody I know is talking about it and it would have died by now if the media hadn't beaten it to death.
This is not intelligent journalism - so does anyone have any ideas about what we can do to counter it??

[nightwind928]

Perhaps we're already doing it. We have abandoned an antiquated press that refused to adapt to the changes of the 21st century and now embrace sites like this one where ideas are espoused in real time and opinions exchanged freely. We have uncontrolled choices for relevant news now and how we use these new choices will define how we interpret what is newsworthy. I seldom rely on the biased corporate news channels for what I consider true news as do many today. But as long as the majority of people insist on being entertained by the media at supper time, the media will fill their requirements. Sensationalism sells cars,drugs and feminine hygiene products and the mainstream news orginizations are profit hungry corporations. Lets face it, most news is about the business of running the government and business, by it's very nature is not exciting stuff, especially to those who remain uneducated about the topics of focus.Sites like this one grow everyday because of those of us who demand something more. This is the future of the new media and as technology continues to expand, we are the winners.

[Greg2000]

So well said. Too bad smart people are the real minority in this country.

[buzzy]

I also saw this incident as a clash of two egos, Nothing really worth noting.

[krocklin]

The Public is just too slow to get it.
Any distraction that is pumped up by the mainstream media easily derails the important issues.

[pundit27]

True, but in this particular case, Obama committed a cardinal sin of public affairs messaging: he stepped on his own critical arguments. Not only was his health care messaging performance pitifully inadequate, he then compounded the problem by being overly provocative on the Gates arrest. For such an adept communicator to do this, it may well have been that BHO was fully aware of how badly he had fallen short in giving the public the four to seven points -- the maximum number of discreet assertions that so-called top tier messaging should ever cover -- on why health care reform is necessary, why his administration's approach is the correct one and what the financial impacts will be for our economy and individual families. Obama's lackluster performance may have been the first time in his six-month presidency where the President's messaging "meism" has undercut his aspirations rather than advance them. What are those four to seven points that EVERYONE in the administration and on its side in Congress are repeating daily to sell this initiative? When people like Rahm Emanuel and Nancy Pelosi are apparently blithely allowed to wander off the messaging reservation, you don't have to speculate about Presidential weakness, it is clearly manifested. Time for some very strong internal discipline or this baby will be drowned in six inches of political swampwater.

[Dredd]

Peter,

I don't hear the media pointing out that the law under which Professor Gates was arrested is over 100 years older than the United States, and a law which a Massachusetts expert lawyer says is the "stupidest" law on the books.

May I suggest:

http://blogdredd.blogspot.com/2009/07/stupidest-law-in-nation.html

[Jazzman323]

I think we have finally reached a point in the race debate in this country, where common sense will win out over race baiting politics. In this Gates incident, it could have all been avoided by the black professor cooperating with the white officer. The day of the Shartpon/Jackson racial circus following these kinds of events is over, due to our experiences like the Duke/LaCrosse affair and the availbility of media information of what really happened.

Obama made a huge mistake by 1)commenting on it without the facts and 2)Trying to automatically fit the incident into the past template of racism in this country.

Everyone in this day understands what racial profiling is, and especially police, and does not desire to go there.

[erincnyc]

I believe you are making too much of Obama's greater presence in the media than former presidents by only looking at their first six months in office. Obama's first six months were greeted with a global financial disaster. He was forced to turn to the media to address this crisis. I do believe this Skip Gates story had legs, and reporters and talking heads should have just acknowledged it for what it was--a great news story. In this era of gossip blog supremacy, the main stream media want to compete, and this was a perfect storm. I agree, call it what it is and run with it, no need to analyze why you are running with it and not something else.

[OlHippie]

You know that if the races were reversed but the exchange was exactly the same, the white college professor would still be the branded "racist." The talking heads in the African American community would wax philosophical, about how the arrogant white guy thought he was too good to be questioned by a black cop.

[Citizen-Jane]

So it is a bout race?

[Flavor]

I suggest coming from a line of law enforcement, that we the americans get educated for as our knowing our rights. It is perfectly okay to ask a officer for his badge number and name and this should be given upon request. No one was there we only know what has been reported but why? were the charges dropped, could it be they could find no wrong in what Professor Gates supposably did. I don't care if you teach a class on race relations, your human and humans make big time mistakes and remember that old saying, do as I say but don't do as I do. We all have seen that on our jobs, and you know it, people in leadership taking advantage of it because of their position, we have seen this recently with a 2 governors in the last 6months. Change, has got to happen from the top of the roof to the bottom floor of the house. Just my view.

[Gasparilla]

I assume the link will make it beyond the moderator. If there is one bit of telling information, it's the fact that Gates demanded that the cop "beg my forgiveness". An apology is one thing, but "beg"? It don't think it's any stretch to see this egomania as a reason why this incident happened.

http://www.thebostonchannel.com/education/20136545/detail.html

[Mugzi]

I totally agree with our President. There was nothing he said that was not true! We've come along way, but we still have a ways to go! Racism begins in the home - when parents stop with the racial slurs and start correcting our children regardless how big or small, then racism will be no more.

[wanttruth]

Good post. I agree.

[joceeco]

"Look, I'm both you guys rolled into one. You guys should come together like my mother and father did and create racial harmony. The two of you should put aside your racial differences and come together based upon the human qualities, that makes us one people. Everyone calls me cool under pressure, but I tell you that being Black and White is the thing that makes me mellow, yellow and a cool kind of fellow. So Gates, Crowley.... chill with this thing called race, and let's have a beer, at my place!" Said by President Obama to Professor Gates and Officer Crowley in a three way call this afternoon.