The Media monitoring organization Media Tenor explains: "
"Obama's greatest strength in foreign media, is exactly the same strength which led the Nobel Prize committee to its decision -- foreign affairs. In Middle Eastern, African and Western European media markets Obama's image is driven by between 40-65% of all volume on issues relating to foreign policy with correspondingly high ratings for the president in those media markets,
"Yet Obama's image has developed a significant downside -- his own domestic media market. In US TV news, Obama suffers a negative balanced rating for the year 2009. The failure of his healthcare reforms, the inevitable backlash on the administration over high unemployment and the ongoing financial instability in the wake of the financial crisis have given the US media plenty of ammunition against the President. In the US where Obama's overall media rating is a round 25% negative -- he also rates negatively on foreign affairs."
So, thus, an award given by pols in Norway reflect their impressions, not necessarily ours. The American reaction was of course myopic and provincial, mired in polarized politics and a twitterized culture of jaded skepticism where personalities drive the news
What should Obama have done? Turn it down and risk putting down world opinion and those who want to recognize some of his initiatives? He knows he is never going to please those who put him down, on the left as a war monger, or on the right as a, take your pick, suicide bomber, commie, fascist, Muslim fanatic etc.
Should he have accepted it in escrow with a panel of analysts to be named later to decide whether his accomplishments at term's end make him more worthy as a winner than loser?
Clearly, those who already hate him and think he can, and will, do no good have something new to snicker and feel self-righteous about. Those who think he walks on water have more validation as members of his uncritical fan club.
Everyone else is astonished that he won THE big prize for moving his mouth, not the world itself. This latest accolade may just add to his burdens.
And where does it leave us? Exactly where we were before with a President stymied by excessive caution, backed by an unmobilized constituency of well-wishers, pressured on all sides by Pentagon and Wall Street power, along with a media that tilts right and ignores world opinion,
Denunciations do not work. Why not try organizing? As we used to sing in the civil rights movement, keep your eyes on the prize. Not the Nobel Prize.
News Dissector Danny Schechter blogs for Mediachannel.org. He is finishing a book and film on the financial crisis as a crime story. (PlunderThecrimeof ourtime.com) Comments to dissector@mediachannel.org
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