OK, You Press People Can Be Adversarial Now

By Former President Barack Obama

It’s over. For better of for worse – I will of course always insist for the better – my two terms in office have elapsed, and now a new man occupies the Oval Office. That means it is time for the media to shift its attitude, and implement what it has been unaccustomed to practicing during that time: challenging the president and the administration with tenacious investigation and skepticism. I trust you journalists and commentators have not forgotten how to do that, despite the vacation you took from it during my presidency.

Initial signs point to a robust reentry into the role on your part, but you must take care not to rest on your laurels. Resting on one’s laurels would be more appropriate for someone who won, say, a Nobel Prize for Peace early in his career, and could coast from that point on. You do not have that luxury. So yes, keep challenging Mr. Trump and his officials, keep exposing the falsehoods and half-truths – I know you can do it, even though you parroted my administration’s talking points for most of the last decade.

Not that the echo-chamber we so carefully assembled and maintained must now be dismantled. Quite the contrary – from this point forward the chamber carries extra importance as a way to amplify opposition to Trump’s policies and rhetoric. What you must adjust, however, is the governing assumption that what emerges from the White House must be defended, repeated, and cast in the best light. Early signs point to your having shifted properly away from echoing White House talking points, but vigilance is a must here. Goodness only knows what would happen if the media were to avoid a critical approach to anything this administration does.

The hands-off attitude was fine under me, but I was different. I was above reproach, as far as you were concerned. Of course there was the ideological affinity the left-leaning media have for a Democratic president, but I was also the first African-American president, and that gave me an aura of untouchability, no matter how much I weakened the US in the Middle East, empowered Iran, legalized their nuclear weapons program, emboldened Russia, weakened NATO, and betrayed numerous allies. Thank you for supporting me in that, by the way. And for helping shift the blame to both Republicans and to Trump himself, long before he even assumed office. That was well played on your part.

But the era of cooperation is over. The time has come to be adversarial again. I hope you are up to the task.

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