There can be no doubt that President Barack Obama is about as slick as a patch of ice on a frigid road. The man knows how to spin a narrative in a way that benefits himself and his fellow progressives. Recently, the former president has been on the media circuit to discuss what seems like his hundredth memoir.

During several interviews with various drooling media outlets, Obama lamented the state of the press and its pernicious impact on political discourse. But rather than give an honest and sober assessment of the state of journalism, he reserved his ire exclusively for conservative-leaning news companies.

Obama Lists Grievances With Conservative Media

Barack Obama

During a conversation with The Atlantic, Obama claimed that right-wing talk radio and clickbait news sites diminish the ability of listeners to think and require them to “go along with conspiracy theorizing, false assertions, fantasies that Donald Trump and Rush Limbaugh and others in that echo chamber have concocted.”

Obama portrayed the current political conversation as an environment in which “issues, facts, policies per se don’t matter as much as identity and wanting to beat the other guy … The current media environment adds to that greatly. This democracy doesn’t work if we don’t have an informed citizenry.” He continued, noting that this tendency persists until some “genuinely believe the Democratic Party is a front for a pedophile ring.” In fact, Obama goes so far as to say that right-leaning media are “the single biggest threat to our democracy.”

The former president also recalled his tenure in the White House and complained about how conservative media criticized him to the point that Republican politicians saw that it was “politically advantageous to demonize me and the Democratic Party.” He noted that the GOP “couldn’t take anything less than a hard line; they had to tolerate conspiracy theorizing that they knew wasn’t true — obviously that’s pertinent today.” Obama, of course, was referring to President Donald Trump’s legal battle in the courts over the results of the presidential election. However, it appears that Obama may have left out an essential factor in this equation.

What Is Obama Leaving Out?

As with most leftist deceptions, Obama’s remarks have a modicum of truth to them. It is impossible to deny that much of what he said about some conservative media organizations is accurate, but there is far more to the story than he wants his audience to know. Obama’s comments reveal a loss of memory so pronounced that one might wonder if his former vice president’s cognitive issues have rubbed off on him. When the former president discussed the dissemination of conspiracy theories and clickbait, he forgot to mention how progressive outlets engage in the same behavior that he criticizes.

Donald Trump

For starters, conspiracy theories are not popular only on the right. Since President Trump took office, the left and the corporate media have worked overtime to push the failed “Trump is a Russian asset” narrative. They took any comment the president made in favor of better relations with Russia as undeniable proof that Trump had joined up with Boris and Natasha to further the Kremlin’s interests in the United States.

But that’s not all. Obama’s whining about how fiercely conservative media attacked him is laughable considering the fact that, throughout his entire presidency, progressive news outlets formed a rhetorical phalanx around him to shield their messiah from anyone who might criticize or question his policies. Anytime Obama did something worthy of rebuke, they grabbed their spears and shields and fought valiantly to ward off the opposition, usually by labeling his critics mindless racists driven mad by the sight of a black man in the Oval Office who wasn’t a janitor.

Moreover, these same sissy Spartans turned their weapons on President Trump after Obama was out of office. They are guilty of the same style of attacks that conservatives made against Obama. In fact, they became worse. They pushed for a years-long investigation into Trump’s supposed collusion with Russia when they knew it was a string of lies. Indeed, Democratic politicians used corporate media’s reportage to bolster their false claims against Trump.

Of course, Obama knows precisely what he is doing: relying on the ignorance of the people listening to him. He is aware that many Americans don’t see how the media, in general, contribute to the problems that Americans experience in political discourse. If he were an honest broker in this conversation, he would use his voice to push for change in the Fourth Estate. But it appears that he is interested only in playing politics. What a surprise.

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