Obama: Graduates Beware of the New Media

| May 10, 2010

image In a commencement address given at Hampton University in Virginia over the weekend, President Barack Obama was preparing students about the dangers of the new media.

Meanwhile, you’re coming of age in a 24/7 media environment that bombards us with all kinds of content and exposes us to all kinds of arguments, some of which don’t rank all that high on the truth meter. With iPods and iPads; Xboxes and PlayStations; information becomes a distraction, a diversion, a form of entertainment, rather than a tool of empowerment. All of this is not only putting new pressures on you; it is putting new pressures on our country and on our democracy…

…With so many voices clamoring for attention on blogs, on cable, on talk radio, it can be difficult, at times, to sift through it all; to know what to believe; to figure out who’s telling the truth and who’s not. Let’s face it, even some of the craziest claims can quickly gain traction. I’ve had some experience with that myself.

I find it amazing with most of the mainstream media in bed with him salivating over his every speech, with Chris Matthews getting thrills up his legs, and David Brooks being impressed with the crease in his pants; that he would be happy overall with the media coverage.  But no.  Beware of blogs (I’m sure HuffPo is fine with him), cable (read Fox News), talk radio (read Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, Glenn Beck, Mark Levin).

Don’t worry about the newspapers and the Big Three networks – they’ll steer you through this morass of information that will shake the core of our democracy!  It is pretty galling that the President who has been challenged the least by the mainstream media is the one who whines the most.

His rhetoric about the flow of information is disconcerting, the type of language that I would expect to hear from certain southern neighbors.

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Category: Media Issues, Obama Administration

About the Author ()

Shane Vander Hart is the founder and editor-in-chief of Caffeinated Thoughts.  He is also the President of 4:15 Communications, LLC, a social media & communications consulting/management firm.  He is a communications director for American Principles Project’s Preserve Innocence Initiative.  Prior to this Shane spent 20 years in youth ministry serving in church, parachurch, and school settings.  He has also served as an interim pastor and is a sought after speaker and pulpit fill-in.  Shane has been married to his wife Cheryl since 1993 and they have three kids.  Shane and his family reside near Des Moines, IA.  You can connect with Shane on Facebook or follow him on Twitter and Google +.
  • http://caffeinatedthoughts.com/?author=13 Mary Selby

    Hopefully these students, who have for most of their lives enjoyed new media and have grown accustomed to its many uses, will be suspect of the President’s condemnation of said media and will use their newly trained brains to think through these ludicrous comments.
    .-= Mary Selby´s last blog ..Arizona’s Brave Stand Against Illegal Immigration =-.

    • http://caffeinatedthoughts.com/?author=2 Shane Vander Hart

      I would hope so.

  • http://www.toomanyaborted.com Ryan Bomberger

    Apparently Xbox wasn’t a distraction when, then, presidential candidate Obama placed campaign ads in popular video game “Burnout Paradise” in ’08. http://bit.ly/do-as-I-say

    The dissonance between political rhetoric and action is a wide chasm. The issue is not one of too much information (whose info anyway?) but too little critical thinking or proaction to actually discern the truth.

    May rivers of info continue to flow, regardless of what any politician may say. Freedom depends on it.

    • http://caffeinatedthoughts.com/?author=2 Shane Vander Hart

      So true!

  • http://www.jeannie-ology.com jeannieology

    Obama wants to be the source and wellspring of all information — if he can’t fully control it, he doesn’t like it. Plain and simple.

    • http://caffeinatedthoughts.com/?author=2 Shane Vander Hart

      Maybe we should delete all our blogs and just get it straight from the source – http://www.whitehouse.gov (just kidding).

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