Obama on the News Media: ‘All it Does Is Feed Cynicism’

When New York Times reporter James Risen said over the weekend that he thinks President Barack Obama “hates the press,” he might have been on to something.

Obama seemed to confirm the theory while speaking at a fundraiser for the Democratic National Committee in New York on Wednesday, saying Democratic voters should vote in the midterms despite “cynicism” from Washington and the news media.

“Too much is at stake,” Obama said. “The issues I’m fighting for, the issues that I will continue to fight for even after I leave this office, those issues are at stake. And we’ve got to be willing to fight for them. We’ve got to feel a sense of urgency about this at a time when, frankly, the press and Washington, all it does is feed cynicism.”

Obama touted economic growth and expanding access to health care and said the news media has ignored what he called positive achievements of his administration.

“Most of you don’t know the statistics I just gave you. And the reason you don’t know them is because they elicit hope,” Obama said. “They’re good news. They shouldn’t be controversial. And that’s not what we hear about. We hear about phony scandals, and we hear about the latest shiny object, and we hear about how Washington will never work.”

[Photo via Shutterstock]

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