AP Shamelessly Changes the Obama Subject -- From Health Care to His Cooking and Singing Talents

December 3rd, 2013 2:14 PM

AP knows how to change the subject from the Obamacare fiasco. AP reporter Darlene Superville has decided now is the ideal time to focus on “5 New Things About President Obama.” They’re five personal stories about his activities.

Superville began: “The man who lives at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. is more than just another celebrity, or the famous face behind the government's troubled health care website. Here are five new things about President Barack Obama:”

A Nexis search finds there was never an AP article on "5 New Things About President Bush." The Obama list was provided with capitalized headlines:

HE SINGS IN THE BATHROOM
THIS PRESIDENT CAN COOK
BROKE HIS NOSE PLAYING BASKETBALL
WORLD TRAVELER
DAUGHTER HAS PEANUT ALLERGY

What self-respecting “news” outlet runs a trifle like this? The "broke his nose playing basketball" section dips into how Obama explained how young people need health care, for all their athletic-injury needs.

On singing, Superville wrote:

Obama showed off his pipes when he sang the opening lines of the Al Green classic "Let's Stay Together" at a New York fundraiser in January 2012. He apparently has had a lot of practice. Asked during an interview on BET's "106 & Park" about her husband's unexpected turn as a balladeer, first lady Michelle Obama said he sings "all the time. Oh, yes, he's in the bathroom all the time just singing. He is always willing to sing. He's like, 'You want me to sing now, want me to sing something for you?'"

On cooking, there was this: "Obama said the mothers of the Pakistani roommates he had in college in 1980 taught him how to cook a traditional South Asian meat dish called keema, a lentil dish known as daal 'and other very good Pakistani food.'"
 

(HT: @setonmotley)