Obama Takes Media to Task for Coverage of ‘Untethered’ Campaign
- President urges reporters to aim for `higher aspirations'
- Says other leaders are wondering `what is happening' to U.S.
President Barack Obama speaks at the awards dinner for Syracuse University's Toner Prize for Excellence in Political Reporting on March 28, 2016, in Washington.
Photographer: Olivier Douliery-Pool/Getty ImagesThis article is for subscribers only.
President Barack Obama condemned politics “untethered to reason” and implored reporters to “not dumb down the news” in a harsh criticism of the media and the tenor of the 2016 presidential campaign.
In remarks delivered at a journalism awards ceremony Monday in Washington, Obama called on the press to have “higher aspirations” than the number of electronic “hits” stories may generate. And he warned that the coarsening political dialogue was eroding America’s standing in the world.