However! That’s not to say the President didn’t repeat himself. In today’s New York Times Alessandra Stanley says the interviews were “as tightly choreographed — and eerily similar — as the multiple Magritte bowler-hatted men milling in the remake of “The Thomas Crown Affair.”” Snap! But what if anything did this uber media savvy President have to say about the press is spends so much of his time courting? Mostly that the media loves rude. And he said it a lot.

Obama used the word rude in no less than four interviews when talk turned to media coverage (perhaps this is the PC translation of ‘jackass’). So there you have it, turns out the President know exactly what it takes to get on a TV in a “hot second” he’s just not employing it because, in the words of Peggy Noonan he’s doing so much TV because “because he can, because people do what they know how to do.” Maybe he will embrace his own “rude” side this evening when he stops by David Letterman. One can only hope. The health care bill needs a slogan! In the meantime here’s a ‘rude’ look at Sunday’s magical media tour.

“The media encourages some of the outliers in behavior, because, let’s face it, the easiest way to get on television right now is to be really rude.”

ABC’s This Week With George Stephanopoulos

And — and sometimes I think that, frankly, the media encourages some of the outliers in behavior, because, let’s face it, the easiest way to get on television right now is to be really rude. If you’re just being sensible and giving people the benefit of the doubt and you’re making your arguments, you don’t — you don’t get — you don’t get time on the nightly news.

STEPHANOPOULOS: You might on Sunday morning, but&

OBAMA: But if you — if you say something outrageous, you’re there in a hot second.

CBS Face the Nation

And I have to, one last point I’ve got to make, Bob, and that is I do think part of what’s different today is that the twenty-four-hour news cycle and cable television and blogs and all this, they focus on the most extreme elements on both sides. They can’t get enough of conflict, it’s catnip to the media right now. And so the easiest way to get 15 minutes of fame is to be rude to somebody. In that environment I think it makes it more difficult for us to solve the problems that the American people sent us here to solve.

NBC Meet the Press

And— unfortunately, we’ve got, as I’ve said before, a 24-hour news cycle where what gets you on the news is controversy. What gets you on the news is the extreme statement. The easiest way to get 15 minutes on the news, or your 15 minutes of fame, is to be rude…Well, you know, the— I— I— I do occupy— a pretty special seat at the moment. But— but I do think that— look I mean, let’s face it, the— if you look at the news cycle over the last— over the last week— you know, it— it— it hasn’t been the— the sensible people who, you know, very deliberately talk about the important issues that we face as a country. That’s not the folks who’ve gotten a lot of coverage.

CNN State of the Union

I think it’s important for the media, you know – not to do any media-bashing here – to recognize that right now, in this 24-hour news cycle, the easiest way to get on CNN is or Fox or any of the other stations, MSNBC is to say something rude and outrageous…If you’re civil and polite and you’re sensible and you don’t exaggerate the-bad things about your opponent and you know, you might get on one of the Sunday shows. But you’re not going to be on the loop. And, you know, part of what I’d like to see is all of us reward decency and civility in our political discourse.

(h/t Newsbusters)

We took a look at how the four interviews went (excluding Univision for this post), and what was learned, based on several categories: number of questions, first, last and best question and how the host handled the all-important “race” question. Here are the results:

ABC: This Week
Total: 13 questions
First question: “Senator Rockefeller and several other Democrats say that this bill by Senator Baucus is a big middle class tax increase. Do you agree and does that mean you can’t sign it?”
Last question: “What’s the moment, in the last eight months, where you took a step back and said: ‘Wow, I’m going to have to step up my game’?”
Race to the “race”: 9th question
Best exchange: Stephanopoulos- “Merriam Webster’s Dictionary: Tax – ‘a charge, usually of money, imposed by authority on persons or property for public purposes.’” Obama- “George, the fact that you looked up Merriam’s Dictionary, the definition of tax increase, indicates to me that you’re stretching a little bit right now.”
Takeaway: George Stephanopoulos probably had the best closing question (there’s no doubt who had the worst – more on that later), and it really made the President come up with a unique answer. Also, the exchange about the dictionary was a lighter moment that gave Obama a nice opportunity for some ribbing. Stephanopoulos is a solid, fair interviewer. While most of the interview was serious and touched on the key points, the exchange felt a bit like an adviser to the President playing devil’s advocate. It gave a chance for some other perspective (Stephanopoulos talked about how certain topics would be perceived politically), but the tone of the interview made the questions less pointed.
(See more here.)

CBS: Face the Nation
Total: 11
First question: “Have you promised too much, Mr. President?”
Last question: “Even people who agree that that missile system is out of place are asking questions. Shouldn’t you have tried to get something from the Russians in exchange for doing that?”
Race to the “race”: 5th question
Best question: “Seven former directors of the CIA have sent you a letter today asking you to reverse the decision of the Attorney General to reopen the criminal investigation of CIA interrogations that took place after the attacks on September 11th. Would you consider that?”
Takeaway: Bob Schieffer conducted a calm, focused interview that hit the key points while extending to other areas like the CIA letter. It put Obama on his heels – but even with Schieffer’s follow-up, Obama didn’t give much of an answer. The final question ended the interview on a newsy note as well.
(Here’s more.)

CNN: State of the Union-
Total: 19 questions
First question: “I get out of Washington every week for the show, in Connecticut and Rhode Island this week. And I knew I was going to be seeing you, so I asked 20 people, “What would you ask if you had the privilege that I have at this moment?” Eighteen of the twenty, eighteen, asked a variation of where are the jobs? When are they coming back?”
Last question: “I was on a college campus this week and at a lab where they’re trying to make an H1N1 vaccine. As a parent with two daughters in school, how are you dealing with this? And does the Obama family plan include a vaccine for you?”
Race to the “race”: 16th question
Best question: “Do you think President Karzai stole the election?”
Takeaway: John King fit in 19 questions and didn’t rush the “race” question into the front of the a very wide-ranging interview. He even admitted in his final question he had gone over time – but he got in a question, and got an answer, sure to make headlines today. The very pointed exchange about Pres. Karzai was a winner as well – in fact, many of the foreign policy questions gave the CNN audience a perspective not seen in the other three.
(More here.)

NBC: Meet the Press-
Total: 10 questions
First question: “At this point have you said, ‘I’ve laid out my plan. Take it all or nothing’?”
Last question: “Who is your pick to win the World Series?”
Race to the “race”: 5th and 6th question.
Best exchange: Gregory- “Like the public option. You effectively said to the left, ‘It’s not gonna happen.’” Obama- “No, that’s not true. What I’ve said is the public option, I think, should be a part of this but we shouldn’t think that, somehow, that’s the silver bullet that solves health care.”
Takeaway: David Gregory‘s health care-related questions were strong, well-researched, and his follow-ups pushed the President to take a position. That said, he only got in 10 separate questions, and two related to the “race” issue. And one – well one was about baseball. It’s one thing to want to end the interview on a lighter note, as Gregory said, but it’s another to ask a question with such little relevance to the national debate as who the President wants in the World Series. Sure, maybe it’ll get ESPN to replay that portion. But John King going overtime to get the President to take a stand on vaccines, an important, but not pressing issue, only highlights the missed opportunity here by Gregory to really make each minute count.

(More here.)

Winner: CNN. Here’s their video:

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We pointed that out about Obama yesterday, noting how similar his answers were to John King and George Stephanopoulos for his El-Completo-Ginsburg-Sunday-show-blitz. But then we noticed that, for all the kerfuffle about the pay-to-read Megan Fox Rolling Stone cover, she’s on the cover of Cosmopolitan, with a coverline advertising “Juicy stuff she could only say in Cosmo!” Well…not quite.

Here’s Megan Fox in Rolling Stone, talking about her “powerful, confident vagina”: “Men are scared of vaginas…[a woman is most powerful when she is] completely in charge of her sexuality.”

Here’s Megan Fox in Cosmopolitan, talking about the power of — yep — vaginas: “Women hold the power because we have the vaginas. If you’re in a heterosexual relationship and you’re a female, you win.”

Fox also talks in both magazines about using that power to mess with men’s heads, saying in RS something to the effect of, she has harnessed her sexuality and knows how to use it to mess with men’s heads. (Paraphrased from scanning it earlier in a Duane Reade.) This, however, is backed up by what she told Cosmo: “It’s fun when someone intends to put you in his back pocket, but instead, he walks away wounded. I make it a mind game so they don’t know if I’m hitting on them or mocking them.”

Rolling Stone’s Erik Hedegaard also asks her, twice, if she’s ever drawn blood during sex. She responded by being “stonily silent.” Cosmo asked her about her ideal date. She responded with a Rosh Hashanah gift to Jewish men for the ages: “A sexy sandwich with Andy Samberg and Jonah Hill.” Verdict: Cosmo FTW!

To clarify: Barack Obama does not have that last bit in common with Megan Fox. And we’re sure he likes Michael Bay just fine.

Upshot: Both Cosmo and Rolling Stone were a-twitter about their Megan Fox exclusive, but as we have seen in the past, Megan Fox doesn’t reeeaaaallly seem to care about what she says. But hey, it’ll sell magazines.

Related:
Megan Fox, America’s Sexiest Bad Girl: New Cover of Rolling Stone [RollingStone.com]
Megan Fox Hearts Jewish Men, Vagina Power [The Hollywood Gossip]
Megan Fox Cosmopolitan Magazine October 2009 [PopCrunch]
About 800 Pairs of Megan Fox’s Boobs [Mediaite]
Gawker’s Guide to Coverage of Rolling Stone’s Coverage of Megan Fox [Gawker]

Then again, maybe not. The media deluge of the last few weeks certainly hasn’t appeared to change the tone of the debate or the headlines. This morning ABC’s Rick Klein twittered out “read through healthcare headlines today and tell me why POTUS wouldn’t want a full Sunday circuit – if only to try to regain some order.” I still think the President should consider taking a chalkboard with him (or employ the term jackass more liberally). In the meantime, here’s a quick look at today’s headlines. It’s not encouraging.

“Baucus Offers Health Plan, Trimming Cost to $856 Billion” (NYT)

“Alarm Bell on Health Reform” (WaPo)

“Senate Health Bill Draws Fire on Both Sides” (NYT)

“Revolving door for health care aides” (Politico)

“Young Adults Likely to Pay Big Share of Reform’s Cost” (WaPo)

“Clergy focus on ethics of health overhaul” (USAT)

“Mandated Health Insurance Squeezes Those in the Middle (WSJ)

“Health costs to rise again” (Boston Globe)

“Snowe falls away, leaving Senate Dems without GOP health support” (The Hill)

“Obama takes heat from other side of immigrant healthcare debate” (LAT)