President Obama bungled meetings this week with America’s most important ally. The British are irate about it.
First, Obama unceremoniously returned a bust of Winston Chuchill the Brits had given to President Bush right after 9-11. Then, he snubbed Prime Minister Gordon Brown by deciding he wasn’t important enough to merit a joint press conference. Finally, after Brown was thoughtful enough to present Obama with a beautiful pen holder hand-carved from a plank from a former anti-slavery ship, Obama reciprocated by giving Brown a collection of DVDs.
The Brits are up in arms. Editorial after editorial and article after article has ripped Obama’s trashing of the “special relationship” the two countries share. But the story has been ignored by the adoring American media. For example, a Google News search for “Obama, “British,” and “25 DVDs” turns up a mere 21 stories, including reprints in various publications.
We can’t even say it’s a case of conservative-liberal bias, because a search for “Hillary,” “Europe,” and “reset” turns up 249,000 stories and her gaffe only happened on Friday. No, this is strictly a case of the media protecting its investment in Barack Obama.
But perhaps we shouldn’t really blame the American media. They had plenty of other important stories that needed covering this week. Like Octomom. Has she had anymore kids yet? And Michelle. Is she wearing sleeves today?
Gordon Brown may be rethinking his earlier comments in this video.
