“Yes you can! ..own a piece of history.” The phrase rang out of the television like a blast from the barrel of Cheney’s shotgun. Splattering images of Obama all over the screen accompanied by lulling patriotic music, the commercial was selling a glamorized dinner plate with Obama’s picture, the “Victory Plate.” It’s clear somebody is trying to make a dime or two off the newly elected president. The only problem is that “somebody” is beginning to turn into everybody.
It’s nothing new for news organizations or companies to paint their faces with imagery that’s popular amongst the current generation. It could be as mundane as a scantily clad woman drinking Coke, or as comedic as a Geico commercial using fresh off-beat humor as dictated in The Office and Wedding Crashers.
Since when did politics become pop culture though? Obama is now seen just as much if not more on the cover of National Enquirer as he is in Newsweek. I fully understand that the president is popular, but this is just outrageous. This combined with the sensationalistic covers and headlines of magazines like Time, is deteriorating my faith in everyday news publications I formerly held in high regard (no not National Enquirer.)
Two of the covers framed him as nothing short of a revolutionary. One had him mocked up in colors of the American flag gazing upward, coincidentally reminiscent of a famous picture of Bob Marley. The other picture was a painting of him looking forward with a determined look on his face, this one inherently similar to a famous picture of Abraham Lincoln.
Television reporting is no different. Stations were still reporting on the inauguration four days after its occurrence. Yes, a black man being elected president is a historic event, but if American has come so far since the 60’s than why report on this for four days straight with a bunch of special edition features? You’re making race a huge deal by reporting in such a style. Can you say sensationalistic?
Come to think of it, I wouldn’t be surprised if the phrase “Yes we can!” won a Teen Choice award this year. It’s being used by every organization from here to Joe Plumbers leaky ass apartment.
The election of Barack Obama is undoubtedly a momentous historical event, but let’s waits until he actually does something revolutionary before we frame his as one. If you think a black man being elected president is the start of a revolution, then what the hell have the years past been? Lies about progress since the 60’s? It shouldn’t be as huge an event as its being made out to be, this is 2009 not 1970. Besides, if in 2009 American has suddenly become the land where “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal” then where in the hell did Prop 8 come from, let alone pass?
