Since the right-wing media never misses a chance to wail about "liberal bias" or pretend that the media are somehow in cahoots with the Obama administration, it's no surprise that the Drudge Report and Andrew Breitbart's Big Journalism both jumped on Michelle Obama's statement during a CNN interview that “we have help from the media” to invent more supposed bias.
Obama was actually thanking the media for respecting her children's privacy, not admitting to media bias, but shockingly, Drudge and Big Journalism didn't bother mentioning that.
In a link first posted on June 24, Drudge claimed:
Big Journalism posted a similar link:
The first lady is claiming she and the president get “help from the media!” State-run media! Liberal bias! Sound the alarm!
Drudge and Breitbart are probably hoping their readers don't actually click on their links,* however, because the RealClearPolitics.com video to which they link shows that Obama is thanking the media for respecting the privacy of her children, not for helping her husband.
Watch the video for yourself. It's crystal clear:
And here's CNN's transcript of the segment, which aired yesterday on CNN's The Situation Room with Wolf Blitzer (emphasis added):
ROBYN CURNOW, CNN CORRESPONDENT: The long view, obviously, the bigger picture is what you're talking about. You're going on safari here. When you go back home, you're going to walk into also a pretty dangerous environment, a political presidential campaign, a new presidential campaign. How is the family ready for this? It's going to be quite vicious, isn't it? How do you prepare for that?
M. OBAMA: You know, it's -- we're -- we're ready. You know, our children, you know, could care less about what we're doing. We work hard to do that. And...
CURNOW: How do you do it?
M. OBAMA: Well, we -- fortunately we have help from the media. And I -- I have to say this, that I'm very grateful for the support and kindness that we've gotten, and people have respected their privacy. And in that way, I think, you know, no matter what people may feel about my husband's policies or what have you, they care about children. And that's been good -- good to see.
But when it comes to the campaign, you know, we're ready to work hard. We did it before, and we'll do it again. So we're rolling up our sleeves and getting on with it.
While right-wing media figures have stooped to attacking Obama's children, most people would agree that a president's minor children should remain off-limits, making this a totally non-controversial statement.
But leave it to right-wing pundits to spin Obama's statement as something sinister.
* UPDATE: Big Journalism actually did post the video directly on its site, under the headline, “Sound Bite For the Day: 'Fortunately We Have Help From the Media.' ”