Right-wing media misrepresent Obama remarks about oil spill and 9-11
Right-wing media have falsely suggested that in an interview with Politico, President Obama equated the disasters of 9-11 and the Gulf oil spill. In fact, Obama said the oil spill is likely to shape future environmental and energy policy, similar to how U.S. foreign policy was shaped by the 9-11 attacks.
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Obama: Oil spill likely to shape environmental policy as 9-11 shaped foreign policy
Politico: Obama said oil spill " 'echoes 9/11' because it will change the nation's psyche for years to come." In an interview with Politico, Obama said that the oil spill " 'echoes 9/11' because it will change the nation's psyche for years to come." He further stated: "In the same way that our view of our vulnerabilities and our foreign policy was shaped profoundly by 9/11 ... I think this disaster is going to shape how we think about the environment and energy for many years to come." From the Politico article:
Sounding reflective as he heads into a bruising electoral season, President Barack Obama told POLITICO columnist Roger Simon that the Gulf disaster "echoes 9/11" because it will change the nation's psyche for years to come.
Obama -- facing mounting criticism of his handling of the BP gusher, even from longtime allies -- vowed to make a "bold" push for a new energy law even as the calamity continues to unfold. And he said he will use the rest of his presidency to try to put the United States on a course toward a "new way of doing business when it comes to energy."
"In the same way that our view of our vulnerabilities and our foreign policy was shaped profoundly by 9/11," the president said in an Oval Office interview on Friday, "I think this disaster is going to shape how we think about the environment and energy for many years to come."
Right-wing media omit context, suggesting Obama equated the disasters
Hoft: Obama said "the Oil Spill is Like 9-11." In a June 13 Gateway Pundit post, Jim Hoft wrote: "Barack Obama told The Politico this morning that the Gulf oil spill was like 9-11. Then he went golfing for 4 hours." Hoft did not note the context of Obama's remarks.
Doug Powers: Obama "compar[ed] the oil spill to the most deadly attack on American soil." In a June 13 post on Michelle Malkin's website, guest-blogger Doug Powers wrote, "This morning, Obama compared the spill to 9/11, and right after comparing the oil spill to the most deadly attack on American soil, he went golfing for four hours." He further stated:
9/11 -- you remember that day, when people died in an accident caused by airliners taking maintenance short-cuts combined with government environmental regulations that made buildings taller than they should be followed by the president using the tragedy as justification to pass Cap & Trade. The similarities to the Gulf spill are uncanny!
Wash. Examiner's Hemingway: Obama "playing up the urgency of the oil spill saying it 'echoes 9/11.' " In a June 14 Washington Examiner blog post titled, "Obama: Oil spill 'echoes 911' ... now watch this drive!" Mark Hemingway wrote: "Politico ran a story with the president playing up the urgency of the oil spill saying it 'echoes 9/11.' Then as Jim Hoft notes, he proceeded to go golfing for four hours."
Doocy: Obama "told Politico that this whole disaster has echoes of 9-11"; does not note context of remarks. On the June 14 edition of Fox News' Fox & Friends, co-host Steve Doocy said, "The president told Politico that this whole disaster has echoes of 9-11." Doocy later said: "While this is going on in the Gulf, what is the president of the United States doing yesterday? He spent four hours golfing." Throughout the segment, Fox & Friends did not explain the context of Obama's quote.
Fox & Friends quotes 9-11 family member who criticized Obama but does not mention one who said comparison has validity. During the Fox & Friends segment, Doocy read a quote from a New York Daily News article in which the father of a man who died in the 9-11 attacks said it is "ridiculous" to "compare an environmental accident, if that's what you call it, to a premeditated terrorist attack." Fox News contributor Dana Perino later said during the segment, "For the families of the victims of 9-11, that comparison rings hollow." But Fox & Friends did not note that the same article also stated, "Sally Regenhard, who also lost a son, said she could see some validity to the comparisons." The article quoted Regenhard as saying: "Just like on 9/11, there were no plans for emergency preparedness, coordination of response. ... It's a failure of the system and the government. I'm not offended by the comment."
Fox News host actually did say oil spill could be a "bigger" story than the 9-11 attacks
Shepard Smith: "This could end up being the story of our generation, couldn't it? Bigger than the attacks on the World Trade Center." Mediaite noted on May 26 that Fox News' Shepard Smith stated: "This could end up being the story of our generation, couldn't it? Bigger than the attacks on the World Trade Center, bigger than most anything, if 14 million people live down there and a way of life -- it's just unthinkable."
Like Obama, conservative scholar invoked 9-11 while discussing oil spill. In a May 24 Washington Examiner column, James Carafano, a Heritage Foundation fellow, discussed the "lack of preparation" that "turned thousands of 9/11 responders into 9/11 victims." Carafano went on to discuss the Gulf oil spill and stated, "[H]ave officials learned the painful lesson of this experience? Probably not." Like Obama, Carafano discussed the two disasters without equating them.
Numerous conservatives have compared oil spill to Hurricane Katrina
Hurricane Katrina resulted in more than 1,500 deaths. A report from the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs committee stated that Hurricane Katrina "destroyed an entire region, killing more than 1,500, leaving hundreds of thousands homeless, and ravaging one of America's most storied cities."
Limbaugh: "Obama's Katrina. That damn oil slick just got in the way." During the April 30 edition of his radio show, Rush Limbaugh referred to the oil spill as "Obama's Katrina," adding: "That damn oil slick just got in the way. So he had to give some lip service to the oil slick. 'It's all British Petroleum's fault. They gotta clean it up. I'm sending some czars down there.' "
Fox Nation: "Heckuva job? Obama scrambling after week-old spill." From the Fox Nation, accessed April 30:
Big Bureaucracy: "Such erratic behavior brings a Katrina déjà vu." An April 29 post on Big Bureaucracy, to which the Fox Nation linked, stated: "Remind you of something: disaster hitting Louisiana, military called too late -- observing while the losers in charge cannot give a decent estimate of the problem for days, The White House waffling on the issue being afraid of midterm elections? Such erratic behavior brings a Katrina déjà vu."
Wash. Times: Obama will "be closely scrutinized for parallels" to Katrina response. In an April 29 Washington Times article, Joseph Curl reported: "Failure to get control of the relief effort and contain the environmental challenge could pose the same kind of political threat to Mr. Obama's popular standing that the much-criticized handling of the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina did for former President George W. Bush. And unlike Katrina, it is likely the federal government will be the clear lead authority in dealing with the BP spill." Curl also wrote: "Mr. Obama's response to the disaster will be closely scrutinized for parallels to the response of Mr. Bush to the devastating Hurricane Katrina that blew into New Orleans in August 2005, destroying levies and damaging the below-sea-level city."
Drudge: Response "threatens to turn oil spill into Obama's 'Katrina...'" On April 30, the Drudge Report linked to The Washington Times article with the headline: "Slow federal response threatens to turn oil spill into Obama's 'Katrina'..." From the Drudge Report:
Boston Herald blog: "Is Gulf Oil Spill Obama's Katrina?" In an April 30 post headlined, "Is Gulf Oil Spill Obama's Katrina?" the Boston Herald's Lone Republican blog asserted: "If this explosion and delay to react had occurred during President Bush's watch don't you think there would be front page articles hanging Bush out to dry?"
Business Insider: "Hello, The Gulf Oil Spill Is Obama's Katrina." In an April 29 Business Insider article, Joe Weisenthal asserted: "Will the oil spill in the gulf -- which some suspect could be worse than Exxon Valdez -- be the equivalent for Barack Obama?" Weisenthal continued: "Let's at least acknowledge the obvious opposite, that if we were currently in a Republican administration that had just okayed offshore drilling in America, and they had gone eight days without serious action, they'd be getting absolutely pilloried in the press." The article was headlined, "Hello, the Gulf Oil Spill is Obama's Katrina."
Hannity: Oil spill has "been called Obama's Katrina." On the May 7 edition of his Fox News program, Sean Hannity said that the "administration's response to the disaster in the Gulf" has "been called Obama's Katrina." On-screen text during Hannity's comments stated, "Obama's Katrina?"
Obama [or any liberal or progressive] make a perfectly reasonable comment. The Right, knowing s/he has a point and that the comment was not only reasonable, but the the reasonable conclusion would be a more liberal, progressive policy, choose - rather than to offer a reasonable alternative - to distort the comment, misrepresent it, take it out of context and change it's entire meaning... and THEN say, "Can you believe this guy?"
Hey RW Clowns: Your consistent habit of doing this reveals to to be unable to debate with any semblance of reason. Your straw-men may make you feel good about yourselves, but they are tantamount to conceding the point.
I guess you don't really care. Big surprise.
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IMHO
And yes, they don't really care. They want to win at any cost it seems.
What ever happened to "Amercian Execptionalism" indeed!
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These people really are pathetic.
The two events are totally different as far as the response needed from our govt. On 9-11 we were attacked. The spill was an accident. He has already killed deep water drilling in this country, what else does he want? Stupid question, he wants to regulate green house gases and this is a publicity getting event to whip up support for his job killing agenda. He isn't going to let this event go away easily without getting his legislation through congress.
I can't agree with that. We are a big country, if we can't take it when 9/11 is mentioned because it stirs emotional feelings too hot to handle that we are somehow excused if we misinterpret them, well, I don't buy that.
Obama's comments were perfectly reasonable in their context. There was nothing disrespectful or dismissive about either event, he was simply making a valid comparison. Of course they are not the same, but catastrophes and disasters always have some thread of familiarity in them, these two are no different.
It's stupid criticisms like this that only dilute real criticism of Obama when it's warranted.
Really? Seems the examples of "conservatives" upset by this indicates THEY are the ones having this "emotional' reaction to the phrase 9/11
And you would know that how?
I could probably come up with more theories but I just think it was a tragic accident.
You apologists seem less then human to me.
There's plenty of evidence right now that it was negligence, and NOT an accident in the common usage of that word.
The fact that it's NOT an accident doesn't mean that someone planned to have it happen, of course. Intent matters, and no one INTENDED for this to happen. However, the BP people refused to use several redundant safety measures. BP and other oil companies said that they had sufficient contigency plans to deal with this kind of a problem, which they clearly didn't have. BP knew in the hours before this event that there were serious concerns, yet it does not appear that they did what they should have done to try to mitigate the risks from the problems they clearly were experiencing.
Now, we don't know for sure everything yet, but from the evidence we have, there was clearly negligence aplenty on the part of some of the well drillers. That negligence led to 11 deaths, several serious injuries, perhaps billions in losses for innocent BP shareholders, and untold and unknowable damage to the enviroment of the Gulf of Mexico and likely beyond!
Minimizing this by calling it an accident is really offensive to anyone with half a brain. That's why BoulderHippy thought it appropriate!
"Time after time, it appears that BP made decisions that increased the risk of a blowout to save the company time or expense. If this is what happened, BP's carelessness and complacency have inflicted a heavy toll on the Gulf, its inhabitants, and the workers on the rig," said Democratic Reps. Henry A. Waxman and Bart Stupak.
BP made a series of money-saving shortcuts and blunders that dramatically increased the danger of a destructive oil spill in a well that an engineer ominously described as a "nightmare" just six days before the blowout.
The letter from Waxman and Stupak noted at least five questionable decisions BP made before the explosion, and was supplemented by 61 footnotes and dozens of documents.
"The common feature of these five decisions is that they posed a trade-off between cost and well safety," said Waxman and Stupak. Waxman, D-Calif., chairs the energy panel while Stupak, D-Mich., heads a subcommittee on oversight and investigations.
Nor does that stop Rudy 9/11 Guiliani from repeating it over & over.
IOKIYAR. AGAIN!
The responses of 9/11 and the oil goat screw are different, but the fact that we learn from something and apply those lessons learned in the future make this a fitting analogy.
As for the spill being an accident, to some degree I agree. However, it was a preventable accident, just like smoking deaths are.
Had BP or its subsidiaries/contractors deployed what their industry sees as reasonable safeguards, we would not be having this discussion.
Had the regulation not been removed, we would not be having this discussion.
Had the people in MMS been doing their job, we would not be having this discussion.
Had the obstructionists in the Senate been doing THEIR job, which is to confirm or deny appointments the President makes to manage parts of the government, we might not even be having this discussion.
And had the reasonable regulation still been in place and at least SOMEWHAT enforced, we would not be having this discussion.
Fail.
You can pawn those kind of remarks off on right wingers, but not here. Liberal media has been very critical of Obama, and so have many of his supporters, including those here at MMFA.
The big difference being that we're critical of ACTUAL POLICY, and not engaged in making up a string of ridiculous assertions, wild conspiracies, and out of context "gotchas".
After reading the FULL and ACTUAL quote, what exactly is ill-conceived about his comments?
You don't think we changed the way we thought about security policy and our vulnerabilities after 911? Or you disagree that this current disaster has the potential to change the way we think about environmental policy?
Sounds very reasonable to me, actually really normal and not all that complicated or controversial in the least. Has the right wing media machine so utterly brainwashed their listeners that they are completely incapable of digesting a perfectly typical and simple political analogy? Has it really come down to this level of dripping, abject, forceful hatred for a man who in all honesty defined his first year or so in the White house by attempting bi-partisanship and not being that much different from the last 4 or 5 presidents?
Wow...scary.
Their take:
"How dare Obama equate 9/11 and the oil spill, because losing thousands of lives isn't the same as an oil spill..."
I told them, yes, you are correct, if Obama were equating the 2. And to their credit, after I linked them into the actual story, instead of the info they got from somewhere else, they understood that he was trying to make the statement that yes, indeed, due to this oil spill, our approach to these things will take a different turn, much as our foreign policy took a different turn after 9/11.
1) find a quote that even mentions an issue or topic that is on any level controversial
2) misrepresent the quote and manufacture a lot fake outrage and/or act like some kind of victimization has occurred.
3) co-ordinate repeat these attacks across the network of right wing propaganda outlets at a key time during the news cycle.
4) never apologize or retract or correct the initial misinformation
Pretty bad when this kind of nonsense has been happening so frequently, a regular average citizen like me can analyze the methodology so succinctly.
Doug Power's and Hannity for sure. These dolts couldn't read a stop sign to save their own lives.
How freakin' SICK does one have to be to find it funny when 11 people loose their lives in a workplace catastrophe AND use it to score a hit against political opponents?