Obama and Bowling: When the Media Promoted 'Gutter Politics'

[RamboLiberal]

Now that Barack Obama seems to have his party's nomination for president locked up, he may no longer feel so bad about the media's recent obsession about his bowling skills. It's revealing, however, that ever since he famously rolled a couple of gutter balls in Pennsylvania (or was it Indiana?) he has been shooting hoops -- with reporters and camera people on hand -- every chance he gets.

Obama may be over it, but the whole "Bowling-gate" episode still bothers me.

Remember that Op-Ed by Elizabeth Edwards for The New York Times on April 27? It carried the title, “Bowling 1, Health Care 0.” I had to look at it twice, thinking I was on the sports page. Surely it was a baseball score and should have read, “Bowling Green 1, Holy Cross 0?” But no, her piece probed a different sort of sport — a new brand of “gutter politics.”

Edwards, the outspoken wife of Sen. John Edwards, criticized the media obsession with Obama’s bowling form, and low score, during the previous two weeks. Even the supposedly lofty Times was not exempt. While cable news gasbags were the worst offenders, the Times had carried dozens of references to Bowling-gate in its news pages and blog entries. On the very Sunday the Edwards piece ran, there was Maureen Dowd, right alongside, referring to the “bowling debacle.” She didn’t mean the coverage, but Obama’s performance.

A few days earlier, Dowd had to run an embarrassing correction after she alleged that Obama had improperly accepted the donation of bowling shoes from Sen. Bob Casey (D-Pa.), when it was the other way around. Now that’s a “debacle.”

http://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/columns/pressingissues_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1003802351