President Obama blames media coverage for the lack of confidence Americans have in his policy to contain ISIS. In an interview with National Public Radio released Monday, Obama also said that America “is not threatened” by ISIS.
“What is the public missing about your strategy?” NPR Morning Edition host Steve Inskeep asked Obama in an interview that took place before Obama jetted off to his vacation in Hawaii. “And I say that simply because, according to polls, you don’t have much approval for it.”
“Well, I think what’s fair is that, post-Paris, you had a saturation of news about the horrible attack there. And ISIL combines viciousness with very savvy media operations. And as a consequence, if you’ve been watching television for the last month, all you’ve been seeing, all you’ve been hearing about is these guys with masks or black flags who are potentially coming to get you,” Obama said.
“So I understand why people are concerned about it,” he added. “This is a serious situation. But, it’s important for people to recognize that the power, the strength of the United States and its allies, are not threatened by an organization like this.”
Commentator Stephen R. Miller poked holes in Obama’s logic on National Review Online.
“Blaming such anxiety on faulty messaging and over-saturation of terror coverage by networks might be a more plausible assessment if there hadn’t been an actual pattern of recent attacks and attempts both at home and abroad, even as the president has written ISIS off as the junior-varsity team and has focused more on the fate of the polar bear,” Miller wrote.
“The Islamic State and its ideological affiliates are trying, and sometimes succeeding, to come get us, and Americans have noticed. They have come to both Fort Hood and Garland in Texas. They have come to Chattanooga. They have come to Boston, and, of course, to San Bernardino,” he wrote.
Miller noted that the White House has said it will increase the number of media events designed to show Obama engaged with Middle Easy policy.
“He apparently believes the realm of propaganda and media are all that really matter, and thinks that if his administration controls the message, then they can contain the problem and can hold the barbarians off just long enough for him to escape his second term mostly unscathed, despite having the lowest approval ratings of his presidency on his handling of terrorism,” he wrote.
Miller disagrees
“The reason the public is concerned is because we see ISIS coming to civilian metropolitan areas, and we see a dangerously disconnected president — one who golfs and fills out NCAA brackets after beheading videos go viral, or admits he pays more attention to ESPN in the mornings than to news,” Miller wrote.
Check out the interview here. The “what is the public missing” question comes about the 3:30 mark.
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