Last night, I attended a public discussion hosted by the New School’s International Affairs department: “Media in the Age of Obama,” a conversation between NYC-based Guardian columnist Gary Younge and Bard College professor Ian Buruma. It was my first real campus event, and it did not disappoint.
The talk started out broadly enough, first focused on how the President is perceived in Europe — the continental homes of both speakers (Younge is British, Baruma a Dutchman). Both seemed to agree that the adoration that most Europeans have for Obama stems from the loss of faith in the largely disappointing leadership of Blair, Berlusconi and Sarkozy. Even more so than in the United States, Obama’s victory in 2008 seemed filled with the promise of diplomacy, fair and responsible governance and — in stark contrast to his predecessor — deference to the more intellectual traditions of politics.
What came as somewhat of a bittersweet revelation was the fact that this European view has changed little in the year since Obama assumed office. While he finds himself besieged by a perhaps an overly-expectant nation on this side of pond, public opinion there continues to hold him in exceptional esteem. Of course, “Old World” Europe does not grapple with the same societal issues that we do here (not to mention our deeply-entrenched, more pronounced natural proclivities toward conservatism), but it was nevertheless interesting to note the disparities in attitudes, given the fact that both continents more or less shared the very same hopes in Jan. 2009.
Naturally, the two reasonably objective “outsiders” (where American politics are concerned) then turned their attention to domestic matters, debating the role of race in the election — the point at which their opinion diverged — and volunteering various theories as to why Obama presently finds himself an embattled leader (while Bush, despite incontrovertibly steering the nation toward the brink, receives a remarkably light sentence from the American public).
Returning to agreement toward the end, they proposed that, like observers the world over, Americans had become too seduced by this paradigm-shifting, messianic figure of Obama, holding him to unrealistic measures of success, and thereby ensuring disillusionment, even when no world leader in history has achieved what was expected of this president just one year into the job.
Though the discussion was much more political in nature (as opposed to media-related, as its title suggested), it concluded by making some good observations of the role of media outlets and new technologies in relation to perceptions — real and imagined — of the President. The speakers each noted how they both, in their respective fields, had been exposed to the ways in which media has distorted the realities of both Obama and the situations he must govern over. For instance, Buruma highlighted how social media and partisan television programming have given the “ranters and ravers” a voice, enabling them to mobilize as they never have been able to do so before, citing the Tea Party movement as an example. Younge detailed how his decade-long stint as a US-based correspondent had often led him to strongholds of the virulently anti-Obama movement, where he engaged attempted to engage loyal followers of the agenda-setting, reality-distorting FoxNews network.
It was important to hear these firsthand perspectives from such seasoned political commentators, because hardly do we Americans pay very much attention to European attitudes toward our politics. The particular insights that were shared seemed fresh and well-informed, even if the general subject matter has long been belabored by the 24-hour news cycle that President Obama views with contempt. Both gentleman were extremely well-spoken, in firm grasp of their facts and appropriately elaborate with their responses to one another.
All in all, it was quite a pleasant way to spend an early Friday evening.
