Tragedy continues to loom over the national political debate on gun control as gun-related crimes continue to ravage our country without a coherent plan of action to curtail such violence. This debate has caused Democrat politicians in pro-gun districts to shy away from President Barack Obama’s plan in order to maintain their political power. This then forces the president to go on his own campaign of gun control-related speeches and interviews.
During one of these interviews with The New Republic, President Obama was asked if he has ever shot a gun. He replied, “Yes, in fact, up at Camp David, we do skeet shooting all the time,” prompting the media to spur into false outrage action.
Why haven’t we heard about Obama’s skeet shooting before? Shouldn’t someone have mentioned this pastime of his? Why has a photo never been released of Obama skeet shooting? These are some of the questions asked during the onset of what prolifically (or embarrassingly) is being called “Skeet-gate.” Jon Stewart had his own satirical questions, including, “Why won’t the black man half the country lives in fear of release a picture of himself holding a gun? I don’t get it.”
Not even a few days passed before the White House released a photograph of the president in a short- sleeved shirt firing a shotgun in the glaring August sun with smoke billowing out from the barrel. Foreseeing what he thought would be a common perception, White House Senior Adviser David Plouffe tweeted, “Attn skeet birthers. Make our day — let the photoshop conspiracies begin!”
It’s almost hard to tell what is more pertinent: the ability of the president and the White House to easily shrug off nonissue conspiracy theories (take, for example, the releasing of his birth certificate) or the inability of the media to be a relevant watchdog of democracy. As it turns out, the media have become glorified gossipers and the epitome of little high school girls in the bodies of grown men and women pretending to be journalists.
Then again, many prominent members of the media aren’t journalists at all. Al Sharpton, Sarah Palin and Eric Bolling are clear examples of individuals who steer public discourse and make a lot of waves by being the loudest people in the room. In a way, it makes sense for them to avoid such substantive debates as to what the real issues are.
As for the gun debate, whether Obama has ever shot a gun bears no weight on the relevance of his proposed legislative plans. Even if he had never fired a gun before and is a lying liar with his lies, it does not delegitimize his endgame, which is ultimately the reduction of gun violence. But even with his good intentions, Obama’s plan won’t curtail violence in a society that embraces a culture of alpha-male dominance on the one hand and the acceptance of the assassination of American citizens via cruise missiles on the other.
In any event, not all Americans are policy wonks, but what they do know is where they stand on the president. Many Americans clearly do not like the president. Even more straight up resent him. If this idmittance of skeet shooting is in any way a matter of trying to get on the good side of gun slingers, then he should prepare himself to be surprised by their unchanged opinions. Pandering is one thing. Trying to befriend people who hate you is another.
Either way, the covering of this issue as if it were actually a story demonstrates the absurdity of the state of journalism in the United States. The micro-examination of every move and minutia of politics by its closest spectators would be useful had they actually decided to cover important issues.
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