NYT: "Obama Calls for U.S. to Lead in Graduation" (during Texas speech where he also dissed Bush)

[alp227]

Interesting. Today, the Dallas Morning News reported today's Obama speech in Texas as "Obama hauls in checks during short visit to Dallas and Austin ". (DU Thread picked up the initial headline: "Obama, speaking to Austin Democrats, takes swipes at Bush and Rep. Joe Barton") But the more nationally-oriented New York Times chose to highlight that Obama called on the US to graduate more college students: "Obama Calls for U.S. to Lead in Graduation".

But most of the story was devoted to Obama's fundraising for Bill White, the Democratic challenger to incumbent Republican governor Rick Perry. Only this much of the story was tied to the headline:

The president paired his fund-raising swing with a policy event, a speech at the University of Texas, Austin, in which he made the case that “education is an economic issue” and restated his call for the United States to produce an additional eight million college graduates by the year 2020.

But the bulk of the trip was devoted to politicking, and Mr. Obama made no bones about it.

And some background:

The White House often pairs policy trips with fund-raising events, so the taxpayers can pick up part of the expense, a practice common to past administrations as well. On Monday, Mr. Obama began his day with the Austin fund-raiser, a lunch that raised $1 million for the Democratic National Committee. Of that, $250,000 was to go to the Texas Democratic Party, presumably to help candidates including Mr. White.

Hmm. I wonder why the NY Times would put so much focus on Obama's comment about college graduates when most of his trip (as with the story) focuses on fundraising. But I've heard people on DU saying that Obama's misguided by saying we need more college grads since not everyone is fit for college, right? After all, a college dropout is responsible for the operating system you're probably using right now, and a lot of successful Americans either dropped out or skipped out entirely.

[Radical Activist]

1. NYT largely ignored the issues Obama raised and focused on the political angle.

The NYT chose to ignore the many issues Obama spoke about that are extremely important to many young people. Instead, they published a trivial article about the political horserace.

It reminds me of the media reaction to Obama's first BP oil gusher speech. Obama gave a powerful call to end our reliance on fossil fuels. The media ignored that portion of his speech and then pundits started asking why he didn't call to end our reliance on fossil fuels....even though he did.

It's important to read articles with an eye on how we're being manipulated. Progressives should understand that the press will ignore or downplay anything Obama says in support of our issues.

[sandnsea]

2. Because the Austin speech focused on education

And the DUers who say college isn't for everyone are not the ones who have to try to survive without college.

From the speech:

"But as I said the other week to the National Urban League, education is an economic issue. It may be the economic issue of our time. It’s an economic issue when the unemployment rate for folks who’ve never gone to college is almost double what it is for those who have. It’s an economic issue when nearly eight in ten new jobs will require workforce training or a higher education by the end of this decade. It’s an economic issue when we know beyond a shadow of a doubt that countries that out-educate us today will out-compete us tomorrow.

So, we know how important an education is in the 21st century � it’s a prerequisite for prosperity. And in fact, we know what we need to do to offer our kids the best education possible. Because we can’t afford to let our kids waste their most formative years, we need to set up an early learning fund to challenge our states to make sure our kids are entering kindergarten ready for success. Because we can’t accept anything but the best in America’s classrooms, we’ve launched an initiative called Race to the Top. We’re challenging states to strengthen their commitment to excellence; to outstanding teaching and superior schools, to higher standards and better assessments. And we’re already seeing powerful results across the country.

But we also know that in the coming decades, a person’s success in life will depend more and more not on a high school diploma, but on a college degree, on workforce training, on a higher education. And so, today, I’d like to talk about the higher education strategy we’re pursuing not only to lead the world once more in college graduation rates, but to make sure our graduates are ready for a career; ready to meet the challenges of a 21st century economy."

More:
http://obama-mamas.com/blog/?p=1822