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Here’s the context in his commencement speech at Hampton U today:
“You’re coming of age in a 24/7 media environment that bombards us with all kinds of content and exposes us to all kinds of arguments, some of which don’t rank all that high on the truth meter. With iPods and iPads; Xboxes and PlayStations; information becomes a distraction, a diversion, a form of entertainment, rather than a tool of empowerment. All of this is not only putting new pressures on you; it is putting new pressures on our country and on our democracy.
It’s a period of breathtaking change, like few others in our history. We can’t stop these changes, but we can adapt to them. And education is what can allow us to do so. It can fortify you, as it did earlier generations, to meet the tests of your own time.
…With so many voices clamoring for attention on blogs, on cable, on talk radio, it can be difficult, at times, to sift through it all; to know what to believe; to figure out who’s telling the truth and who’s not. Let’s face it, even some of the craziest claims can quickly gain traction. I’ve had some experience with that myself.
Fortunately, you’ll be well positioned to navigate this terrain. Your education has honed your research abilities, sharpened your analytical powers, and given you a context for understanding the world. Those skills will come in handy.
Editor-in-Chief Nikki Finke - tip her here.
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He’s absolutely right. The integration between entertainment technology and online communication is only enhancing the already gossip column-ization of politics. Everything becomes more about quick catchy headlines and louder hyperbolic opinions, anything that can grab your attention within 3 seconds, rather than actual information and context.
Granted, this has always been the story of media and politics. But with more mediums arriving, it’s just a larger way for less information to seep through the distorted headlines.
The real scary quote that is left out of this one is. “And with iPods and iPads; and Xboxes and PlayStations — none of which I know how to work — (laughter) — information becomes a distraction, a diversion, a form of entertainment, rather than a tool of empowerment, rather than the means of emancipation.” “NONE OF WHICH I KNOW HOW TO WORK”! – OH BOY! http://mediamatters.org/blog/201005090011
Oh boy…Now government wants to tell us how we are allowed to entertain ourselves in our free time? What is next?
And with all his policies causing everyone to have more free time via un/underemployment, what would he have us do? Why doesn’t he STFU and takeover another industry. At least then I might get to be an overpaid retarded government worker.
@Jameroquai…
Misinformed poster is misinformed. I don’t agree with everything Obama has done in the least bit, but you should at least know some of the facts before you spout off.
“And with all his policies causing everyone to have more free time via un/underemployment, what would he have us do?”
Actually, job growth last month was at a 4 year high. This recession didn’t start the day Obama came into office, sir.
“Why doesn’t he STFU and takeover another industry”
What? Like the auto industry? How exactly has that turned out?…Oh wait, the American car companies have completely recovered to surging revenues, and are paying their loans off at an unprecedented rate. Yes, how terrible for the industry…
“At least then I might get to be an overpaid retarded government worker”.
Sounds like sour grapes from someone who isn’t bright enough to figure out how to become a government employee. My parents have worked for state government for years and have worked incredibly hard to get to the positions they’re in. Most government employees are actually taking stiff furloughs around the country, and these are people with kids and families to take care of.
Next time you want to spew bullshit, you should check your facts first.
Why don’t you STFU and get a job.
Talking about ranking on the truth meter!!!
I didn’t really read anything about “how we should live our lives”, but more advice really on what to really pay attention to. Hell, government has been telling us how to live our lives for quite a long time though, starting most strongly during the Reagan Administration, when they wanted to tell us what we should watch on TV, or listen to on the radio.
Good God you’re stupid. He’s encouraging critical thought, you’d think that might be a positive for newly graduated university students.
You are one stupid asshole. Wow.
That’s not what he said. There is a context to what he was saying. He is giving a commencement address to graduating students. Those technological advances have led some in society to check out as it were. The epidemic in this country of childhood obesity being one example. The man did not say to not use an Ipod or Itouch or Xbox. He said there are better uses for it than people acknowledge.
He’s got a good point. Solid journalism has taken a big hit. Recall seeing one well known blogger dissing journalists saying “he gets all his news via or email”. Regrettably, many truths are discovered that way.
People are bombarded with information and “news”. Most just listen to sources aligned with their political leanings (e.g., the right watch Fox news, the left CNN, etc.) – the dumbing of America.
JMHO
“Solid Journalism” did itself in during the Bush years, when it decided to present opinion as fact, and America finally realized just how slanted Big Journalism had become. Long gone are the days of simply reporting Who What When Where, and all that is left is the Why (in their opinion, of course, as the actual Why doesn’t make for interesting news.)At least with Blogs and talk radio, we know we are getting 90% opinion, and 10% fact.
Cash, you typify the EXACT problem with the dumbed down society. Opinion wasn’t passed off as fact during the Bush years. Fact was passed off as fact. Here are some of the FACTUAL things real journalists talked about during the Bush years.
1. The budget surplus that Clinton produced was turned into a record budget deficit in ONE year thanks to the trillion dollar tax break given to the wealthy. Extra bonus, the media reported that the CBO predicted this deficit would occur BEFORE the tax cut passed.
2. The media reported that there was no real evidence of WMD in Iraq. 8 years later, still no WMD
3. The media correctly reported that FEMA was asleep at the wheel when a few thousand Americans died in New Orleans. The media correctly reported that the President was eating birthday cake with John McCain while the levees broke.
4. The media correctly reported that US Soldiers were torturing prisoners in Bagram, Gitmo, and Abu Ghirab.
When Republicans complain about “media bias”, what they really mean is “why can’t the media be compliant GOP propogandists like Fox”
The problem is that you guys DON’T know your getting 90% opinion and 10% fact… Well, at least 90% of you don’t. It’d be great if the 10% of you that do know that what the other 90% is consuming is BS would let them know so they can stop swearing they know what they’re talking about because Beck wrote in on a chalkboard.
Wow, this headline is completely misleading. The text of this speech doesn’t read like Obama was specifically dissing the ipod. I think the story here might be the use of term “dis” by any self-respecting writer in the year 2010 when referring to a speech by this President. I’d love to do a LexisNexis search for how many times the word “dis” was used in a headline about Bush or Clinton. Do people even use the word “dis” anymore? I guess there was no other modern urban word for ‘a disparaging act’ He’s not a rapper, athlete, or some foolish media star. Maybe just a little more respect is due.
You’re obviously an Obama supporter. Before I even googled this article I was thinking of using the word dis. I’ll bet you can find “dis” in numerous headlines re Bush/Clinton.
Examples of George Bush and “diss”:
http://search.incredimail.com/?q=diss+George+Bush&lang=english&source=017104051022
Examples of Bill Clinton and “diss”:
http://search.incredimail.com/?q=diss%20Bill%20Clinton&lang=english&source=017104051022
How is the iPad like the iPod, other than the name? One is an entertainment device (like the two video game consoles listed here) and the other is a mini-computer.
So two questions.
First, are computers bad too then? A dangerous can of worms that allows access to opposing viewpoints? Computers have given rise to the everyman having a voice, yes, but they have also made access to information and learning (a good thing, no?) simpler, easier, and faster. Seems like he would find value in the iPad.
Also, does he really think people are researching term papers on their PS3? Does he know what that even is? How does this even relate to his point? These are game devices, nothing more.
Nikki, why bother posting this when you know it’s just going to turn into a political debate? No one is going to talk about the actual article.
Everything he says makes sense, honestly. I’m not saying go throw away your ipod, I happen to like mine. But he’s not saying anything out of this world although plenty of Texans (I’m from Texas too so shut up) will come on here and say he’s the anti-christ.
Love your site. Gotta call bogus on this headline. He wasn’t “dissing” said technologies. He was making an argument that the abundance of new technologies has created an ever widening forum for bullshit in the package of truth. To clarify: not dissing iphone, ipods — rather those who use it to sell their bullshit.
I totally agree with “bogusclaim” and so many other posts on this.
Nikki, you used your influential blog to sell us a bullshit headline to stir debate or ire. This is exactly what the President was speaking out against.
Don’t lose your mind– just yet.
Authoritarians like control. He can’t control the new media.
Until he starts saying Stalin-esque quotes like…
“Gratitude is a sickness suffered by dogs”, or “Death is the solution to all problems–no man, no problem”…I think I’ll hold off on calling him an authoritarian.
Yeah…where’s the diss?
The more people communicating…The more people criticizing…And if there’s one thing this smug ego maniac can’t stand is criticism. I guess we’re supposed to tuck our smart phones and laptops away and just bow to the almighty’s wisdom…
What an elitist fraud…
As entertaining as it is to read people’s aimless Obama-bashing, this isn’t really a political comment at all. All he’s saying is media is more overstuffed and somewhat superficial than ever before (which is obviously true), and that it’s important to know how to navigate it and what sources to trust. He’s saying people should follow Deadline, and not treat Entertainment Weekly as bible.
You know what? He’s right! Twitter is a great place if you follow people in entertainment to see them begging to be popular. It really brings out the high school in many writers, directors and actors etc. If you follow them closely you will see the name dropping of bigger more sophisticated and accomplished talents. It’s a real hoot.
As for books, Ipad, Nook etc. The digital world really does take away the focus of what you are working on. We could go on about this for a long time but I believe Facebook, Twitter and much of the digital age has been a waste thus far. We just don’t know what to do with it yet. Look at all the TV stations we can’t fill with quality. As for Facebook, I’ve never seen so many happy people with cheery pictures. It’s so so silly. Everyone has so much going on I don’t know how they find the time to write about it.
Cheerio/Thank you.
I’m an Obama-supporting liberal and this definitely reads to me like a “diss” directed at Fox news. I think he uses iPod/iPad/video games to buffer his message (about distracting political noise) from punditry.
That opening missive — “You’re coming of age in a 24/7 media environment that bombards us with all kinds of content and exposes us to all kinds of arguments, some of which don’t rank all that high on the truth meter” — ABSOLUTELY reads like he’s mostly discussing Fox/conservative blogs.
Since when do iPods LIE?
LK, what are you doing reading this blog? It seems a little removed from MSNBC or KOS. Stick to what you know.
Pretty much everyone commenting on this thread is an idiot.
Can we please not politicize every single God damn thing that Obama says.
Yes, I get it: everything out of his mouth proves he’s a terrorist Muslim socialist who hates America and made that statement because he’s laying the groundwork for a government takeover of the internet and all world industries.
Can we instead, look at what he’s saying and just evaluate that? Let’s play a game: take everything Obama said and pretend it was said by your neighbor. Would you agree with the statement or not?
Or, if your partisan hatred is so intense you think your neighbor is a terrorist because he once said, “I don’t like George Bush’s hairstyle”, then let’s play a different game: take everything Obama said and pretend it was said by your favorite Right wing radio or TV host. Would you agree with the statement or not?
Brilliant post sir, I commend you for it.
I second JohnDoe: great post. Indeed, the “imagine your neighbor, Sarah or Glenn said what Obama did” is a brilliant retort I’m going to steal. Because, yeah: had Rush said the same thing, all of these commenters would only be saying, “ditto.”
I commend you as well. Thank you.
ha – it’s like ‘New Adventures of Old Christine’ when Wanda Sykes’ character bemoans Christine gets all her news from reading Nicole Ritchie’s blog!
This is what Obama is saying: beware the source, search out trusted news-worthy sites and check the facts of a story in depth
– which means, like — find out more beyond 140 characters!!
(…and learn to thank heaven for Nikki Finke and her REPORTERS!)
I have to say that the headline doesn’t line up with what he was saying at all. To what end?
“…With so many voices clamoring for attention on blogs, on cable, on talk radio, it can be difficult, at times, to sift through it all; to know what to believe; to figure out who’s telling the truth and who’s not. Let’s face it, even some of the craziest claims can quickly gain traction.
…I’ve had some experience with that myself.”
That’s an understatement if ever there was one… How can one person be so incredibly arrogant. This guy is some piece of work.
Are you saying that it’s arrogant to point out that crazy claims gain traction? Sean Hannity and Michael Savage both had on guests who claimed that Obama was LITERALLY the son of Malcom X.
this is hilarious..
I guess Obama wants us to go back to the good ol days where we sat in front of the “boob tube” waiting for Tom Brokaw to tell us what to think..
HAHAHa.
sorry barry.. those days are long gone. Thank God.
and seriously.. stop trying to act like you don’t know how to use an ipod/ipad. You know.. you fucking know!
Tell me, when’s the last time you disagreed with anything on Fox News. When’s the last time you thought “I think Rush is wrong on this” or “Glenn Beck sounds off his rocker”. Consider that the next time you whine about “being told what to think by Tom Brokaw” (who retired three years ago by the way).
He’s right. And it has been the job of the U.S. Government ever since Ronald Reagan to weaken the public’s access to information by empowering Big Media to merge, integrate, distract, and minimize distaff voices so that we buy, obey, and grow up stupid and fearful. The same information from different sources doesn’t equal more sources of different information. It used to be that religion was the opiate of the masses. Now it’s social media.
dimwit, see above for LK.
He must be a Nintendo fanboy since he did not mention Nintendo. Just like Hugo Chavez of Venenzlula said something similiar about Nintendo and Playstaion but did not mention XBox
The internet is the last frontier of free speech. Yes, we MUST control that and stop people (well, conservatives) from expressing their opinions.
*rolls eyes* George Orwell’s 1984 much, Barry?
Thanks O! Information is just distractions. I won’t pay attention to any of it and only read news sources that conform to your agenda like cnn/nytimes. Meanwhile, I won’t grow a brain and think for myself. You can bankrupt our country, turn it into a socialist state, tell me what foods I can eat, activities I can do that won’t jack up the prices on your healthcare and I can start wearing uniforms with O on them.
Then I’ll bitch slap anyone that doesn’t agree what what you have to say. I will send my children to your state sanctioned schools where they can learn that our country and anyone that has achieved success in this country was all based on exploiting people. We can all celebrate Cinco De Mayo together, turn ourselves over to the UN and become global citizens. I can’t wait to be poor and eat bad food!
Wow…so many talking points in just two paragraphs.
Here’s something to think about when discussing the whole notion of “too much information”. In January of 2004, a widely discussed poll published in Newsweek indicated that 49% of Americans believed that Saddam Hussein had something to do with 9/11. Now how exactly did 49% of the country come to believe something that was DEMONSTRABLY false? Why, that’s because conservative talk radio and conservative Fox News hammered that connection over and over as a pretext to the disastrous Iraq invasion. Simply hearing something repeated over and over doesn’t make things true, as this example demonstrates. Thanks to the explosion of the internet and the various technologies, a person can go literally all day without hearing anything true, and because conservatism values party and ideology over the truth, this trend is allowed to continue.
And your logic doesn’t work for both ends of the spectrum? Liberal too? Im a moderate I dont want either ideology over truth
says the guy who HAD to have his BlackBerry…..
Obama, you may not want us playing Xbox anymore, but just remember: today’s CALL OF DUTY champions are tomorrow’s MQ-9 Reaper pilots carrying out your “drones-only” policy in Pakistan. So chill out, homey.
Barrack Obama should worship Sony for bringing America the world’s greatest video game system ever made… He can dis the rest they deserve it.
My PSN: Ivan-