The Obama Drama

This week's article comes from Yahoo! News and it concerns a man that could make news coverage for just swatting a fly..which has actually happened. That man is President Obama. As our book stated, one of the president's greatest powers is being able to garner media attention and President Obama can do just that without even trying. The article was about Obama having to deal with hecklers at a recent democratic fundraiser in Los Angeles. The fundraiser was held for Senator Boxer in her seeking re-election, but the article didn't focus on that. It was all about the hecklers attacking Obama. They shouted things such as "repeal don't ask don't tell," which was a key point of Obama's 2008 election. They also broke out into "yes we can" chants which was Obama's campaign motto back in 2008. Obama dealt with the hecklers by telling them that repealing don't ask don't tell is still on his agenda. He also stated to the hecklers, who were also democrats, that their shouting at the wrong people, they should be shouting at the people who oppose repealing the act. He then refocused his speech on Boxer's re-election. As far as the media is concerned, this article was clearly all about drama, which is one way to determine what is newsworthy, and it was also aimed at the inattentive public. This was one way of getting people who aren't very concerned with politics to tune in and see what took place at Boxer's fundraiser. What better to gain the attention of the inattentive public than a little "Obama Drama"?