Special to the AmNews
Journalists, unless they are writing an opinion piece or a blog, should do what they are paid to do if, in fact, they are so lucky to be paid in this age of the Internet: report the news. But Jake Tapper of CNN, who usually covers the White House, stated his disappointment that President Barack Obama was not among the millions—particularly world leaders—marching in response to the horrific loss of lives in France this past week.
“I don’t mean this as a criticism of the Obama administration, but just as an American,” Tapper said, hoping to separate his citizenship from his job and speaking from the streets of Paris. “I do wish that we were better represented in this beautiful procession of world leaders.”
If the president had been there, Tapper presumed, he would be walking arm-in-arm with several other world leaders, including Prime Minister David Cameron of Great Britain, German Chancellor Angela Merkel, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Mahmoud Abbas, president of the Palestinian Authority, among others.
Tapper should tamp down expressing his disappointment, since there’s sure to be enough of that for him to report without adding his own feelings. Already there is a hue and cry from Obama detractors demanding to know how busy he and Vice President Joe Biden could be that they were not there on the frontline with the other world leaders.
We can be sure that if he had gone, people would be accusing him of running away from a welter of critical issues in this country. Once more, for those with little love or consideration, it’s a damned if you do, damned if you don’t for the often-imperiled leader.
The president has expressed his outrage about the innocent lives exterminated in the carnage—what more can be done? There were nearly 4 million people in the streets, and to add Obama would have increased the necessity of security considering that, sadly, only 150 undercover cops were reportedly in the massive turnout.
We wonder if Tapper reported this or the fact that U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder was in France and obviously conveyed the administration’s heartfelt condolences. And wasn’t Jane Hartley, the U.S. ambassador to France, there?