¿Cómo se informa el presidente Obama de la actualidad? ¿Qué medios sigue más de cerca? ¿Qué lee cada mañana, aparte de los informes reservados de los servicios secretos? ¿Qué piensa de los medios y de la crisis por la que atraviesan?

Son, creo, preguntas de interés para cualquiera interesado en la política de los EE.UU. y en los entresijos del poder, pero no es fácil encontrar respuestas claras en un solo texto. Para obtener algo de luz sobre estos temas es necesario rebuscar y entresacar de aquí y de allá en la avalancha de crónicas, análisis y entrevistas con el presidente, para ir completando un cuadro mínimamente comprensible.

Es lo que hizo Julie Moos el 27 de enero de 2013 en Poynter en un artículo titulado One of the biggest factors is going to be how the media shapes the debates, que arrancaba así:

In an interview with The New Republic’s Franklin Foer and Chris Hughes, President Obama “asked us in granular detail about the health of the media business.” Specifically, he “wanted to know if The New Yorker and The Atlantic had found workable business models.

Creyendo que se trataba de una confesión del presidente sobre los medios, entré de inmediato en el artículo citado. Sorpresa: Foer y Hughes apenas hablaron de los medios durante los 45 minutos que duró su entrevista con Obama, Barack Obama is Not Pleased The president on his enemies, the media, and the future of football, aunque reconozco que Moos ha sacado todo el jugo que se podía sacar a las escasas referencias sobre el tema.

Sobre el rol de los medios, en particular de la Fox, que ha abanderado las causas republicanas, en ocasiones con más vehemencia que la mayor parte de los dirigentes del partido, echa de menos Obama una actitud más rsponsable:

I think if you talk privately to Democrats and Republicans, particularly those who have been around for a while, they long for the days when they could socialize and introduce bipartisan legislation and feel productive. So I don’t think the issue is whether or not there are people of goodwill in either party that want to get something done. I think what we really have to do is change some of the incentive structures so that people feel liberated to pursue some common ground.

One of the biggest factors is going to be how the media shapes debates. If a Republican member of Congress is not punished on Fox News or by Rush Limbaugh for working with a Democrat on a bill of common interest, then you’ll see more of them doing it.

Cree el Presidente que, sin la presión de los medios, sus conversaciones con el dirigente republicano en el Senado, John Boehner, podían haber dado más y mejores frutos durante su primer mandato:

I think John Boehner genuinely wanted to get a deal done, but it was hard to do in part because his caucus is more conservative probably than most Republican leaders are, and partly because he is vulnerable to attack for compromising Republican principles and working with Obama.

La combinación de la presión negativa de los medios y del caucus limita también la capacidad de maniobra a favor del interés general en el partido demócrata, pero quita hierro a la parte de culpa que él y otros dirigentes demócratas pueden tener en el bloqueo político de Washington en los últimos años:

The same dynamic happens on the Democratic side. I think the difference is just that the more left-leaning media outlets recognize that compromise is not a dirty word. And I think at least leaders like myself — and I include Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi in this — are willing to buck the more absolutist-wing elements in our party to try to get stuff done. …

Algunas de las reflexiones de Obama sobre el tono hostil del debate político recuerda muchas de las críticas que durante años se han venido repitiendo en España. Lo más interesante, sin embargo, es, al final de la cita recogida por Moos, la esperanza que Obama pone en la opinión pública para romper la muralla:

I think the issue is that we have these institutional barriers that prevent what the American people want from happening. Some of them are internal to Congress, like the filibuster in the Senate. Some of them have to do with our media and what gets attention. Nobody gets on TV saying, “I agree with my colleague from the other party.” People get on TV for calling each other names and saying the most outlandish things.

Even on issues like the response to Hurricane Sandy, Chris Christie was getting hammered by certain members of his own party and media outlets for cooperating with me to respond to his constituents. That gives you an indication of how difficult I think the political environment has become for a lot of these folks. And I think what will change that is politicians seeing more upside to cooperation than downside, and right now that isn’t the case. Public opinion is going to be what changes that.

Como tantos otros políticos y no políticos, Obama arremete contra la tendencia de muchos medios a ocultar su mala práctica profesional tras el velo de una imparcialidad u objetividad mal entendidas, repartiendo culpas o generalizando -demócratas y republicanos…, los políticos…-, como si todos fueran iguales.

In fact, that’s one of the biggest problems we’ve got in how folks report about Washington right now, because I think journalists rightly value the appearance of impartiality and objectivity. And so the default position for reporting is to say, “A plague on both their houses.” On almost every issue, it’s, “Well, Democrats and Republicans can’t agree” — as opposed to looking at why is it that they can’t agree. Who exactly is preventing us from agreeing?

Hasta aquí las referencias al texto de The New Republic en el artículo de Moos, mucho más rico en detalles sobre la relación entre Obama y los medios:

• Obama reconocía en abril a Rolling Stone que también lee The New Yorker y The Atlantic.: «still do terrific work,”
• En la misma entrevista de abril reconocía ser un lector asiduo de todos los columnistas del New York Times.
• Amy Chozik, del Times, escribía en agosto de 2012 que Obama typically begins his day upstairs in the White House reading the major newspapers, including his hometown Chicago Tribune and Chicago Sun-Times, mostly on his iPad through apps rather than their Web sites. … During the day, Mr. Obama reads newspapers on his iPad and print copies of magazines like The Economist and The New Yorker. On most Air Force One flights, he catches up on the news on his iPad.