Media react to Michelle Obama's trip to Target

[Mass]

I am not surprised by the fact these RW tools reacted that way. They just cannot stand that the First Lady wants to keep a normal life.

But why would AP have such a long article about this and keep the positive comments (the claims this is a photo-op are without substance),until the very end, at a point where people have probably stopped reading. There are serious ethical questions on this issue.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/style/michelle-obamas-target-trip-critics-take-aim/2011/10/02/gIQATrMLGL_story.html

Michelle Obama’s Target trip: Critics take aim
...
Was it just an innocent shopping trip, a chance to escape the White House bubble or a clever bit of image manipulation?

Photos taken by an Associated Press photographer of first lady Michelle Obama strolling away from the checkout counter at a Target store in Alexandria circled the globe Friday. The images were unusual and striking, depicting the elegant first lady, in an unglamorous disguise, shopping at a discount store familiar to millions of Americans
...
First Lady Michelle Obama shopping at Target with an AP photographer in tow . . . . planned? I think so,” tweeted Fox News and syndicated radio host Sean Hannity.

“One wonders if First Lady Michelle Obama truly thought she could pass for an ‘everywoman’ as she shopped” at Target, sniffed the Blaze, a Web site launched last year by radio host Glenn Beck.
...
Bob Steele, a journalism ethics professor at DePauw University in Indiana, says the available facts don’t quite warrant the conclusion that Mrs. Obama’s trip to Target was calculated to counter that criticism.

“Journalists and news organizations should not allow themselves to be manipulated in the pursuit of truthful and fair news coverage,” he said, adding, “and, in general, they should be more open about revealing the methods and processes they use to gather the news,” such as disclosing any agreements made with a news source.

But in this case, he said, “absent some cards that haven’t been turned face up on the table, there’s no evidence to suggest that the White House and AP were in cahoots.”

[karynnj]

1. This from the same people who expect people to buy into the myth that

Scott Brown is every man because he wears a (very expensive) Barn jacket and has a pick up (originally bought to haul his daughter's horse - because all kids really do have ponies.)

My guess is that Michelle Obama frequented the better Michigan Avenue stores before Obama was President - though it is not unlikely that there were some things she had no problem buying at Target. I do think that this was likely a photo op, but a completely innocent one. What is strange is the reaction. I doubt the media would have questioned it if it were Laura Bush. It also is not just that the Obamas are Democrats. There was little push back, when multimillionaire Elizabeth Edwards spoke of shopping at a discount store for furnishing for her mansion - something that was less credible.

[FrenchieCat]

2. It be different if Michelle Obama hadn't long ago worn clothes from Target, Old Navy, J. Crew, and

other reasonable retailers.....but she has,
so her shopping at target is not a stretch and in fact,
is quite credible. So there is nothing to "question" in my mind....
As far as media wanting to speculate in the negative....that's all
that they ever do, when it comes to the Obamas. So this is nothing new.

[Papagoose]

5. My mother was disgusted that Michelle Obama shopped J. Crew

She felt it was indignant, improper, disrespectful to the office, etc.

But then again, my mother thinks Nancy Reagan is a goddess.

[Mass]

6. I like this a lot. Living in the WH must cut you so much from the real world.

That she makes every effort to stay in contact with what life is for ordinary people is great.

[Mass]

7. Agree,

[karynnj]

8. I agree - and I was not saying it was a stretch

I likely could have written it better. It is true that some clothes she buys are from those stores, but I think a good many aren't - and there is nothing wrong with that.

The shopping might have been normal, but the AP being there by chance seems unlikely.

[GoCubsGo]

12. Exactly right.

She has been shopping there all along. And, IIRC, somewhere in that AP article, it mentioned that this wasn't exactly her first trip there. I guess they forget about their own big snits when she wore "lowly, cheap-o" J. Crew sweater during a visit with St. Nancy of Santa Barbara. And, remember how much attention they gave her when she wore THIS Target dress in 2009? I love that dress! Wish I had the figure for it.

[Enrique]

4. I don't think the issue is the White House doing the photo op

the issue, imo, is the AP playing along.

[marlakay]

3. I think she just wanted to feel normal

as great as her position is, it must feel like a prison sometimes.

[WI_DEM]

9. the usual suspects--who cares what they think?

[Mass]

11. Apparently, the Washington Post cares enough to report on that.

The only question is why?

[mainer]

10. She was in there 1/2 hour. Plenty of time to call in a tip.

AP photog wasn't necessarily in cahoots. Maybe someone in the store recognized her and called it in.

[Enrique]

14. someone like David Plouffe for example

:shrug:

[emulatorloo]

16. Give it a rest. You are sounding desperate.

[Frustratedlady]

13. Photographers follow them 24/7, don't they?

Well, at least they are available to take photos if they move, burp or eat a cheeseburger. Sheesh!

Why wouldn't one follow her into a store?

[Cosmocat]

15. For 8 LONG years, the "liberal media"

was only allowed to take pictures or show footage against the dilapidated shed on the Bush family complex in Crawford. This was perhaps the biggest sell out by the media in mass in regard to image manipulation.

8 FRIGGEN YEARS, and no pictures of the multimillion dollar ranch house that they actually lived in down there. Just an endless stream of photo ops in front of a shed used for nothing other than the photo ops.

[Dawson Leery]

17. Right Wing Bull Connor Hate Radio is "reacting" to her trip to Target.