WASHINGTON POST BREAKS NEWS ON OBAMA FAMILY PUPPY

April 13 2009

Washington, DC – Politicians make a lot of promises when campaigning and many of those end up being broken. Some are broken because the politicians overpromise what they are capable of doing, others because the environment changes and new requirements take precedence, and some are broken simply because the politician lied to gain votes. While criticism of Barack Obama has been strong so far, the new
President has acted on the majority of the promises he made in his campaign and has delivered at least one, a new puppy.

The President promised his daughters a new puppy in his election victory speech but in the subsequent months little action was apparent on the surface. Media outlets tried digging into the story, repeatedly quizzing the President on when the world would be seeing the puppy but he was largely silent in the matter. That promise though has now been delivered upon in the form of a six-month old Portuguese water dog named ‘Bo’. Now, as the country and the world breathes a little easier, the new administration can get onto other business.

“To be fair he had a lot of other things to deal with. The economic crisis, the wars, and all the other things that tend to take up a Presidents time and it’s likely he
quite reasonably but this particular issue on the backburner. To say that it wasn’t a nagging issue for many would be disingenuous,” said Scrape TV Political analyst Gabriel Kinsey. “People expect politicians to lie and the perception was that if
he would lie to his children than he would lie to anyone. There’s also the belief that the Presidential pet is the country’s pet. With Obama being so global one could even say that this is the word’s dog and I’m sure his appearance has brought much relief to people around the world.”

News of the Presidential pup began to make the rounds on Friday but it wasn’t until Sunday when the name was finally revealed. ‘The Washington Post’ was the first to officially reveal the name of the new dog after having scored an exclusive deal with First Lady Michelle Obama. The Post is one of the oldest and largest newspapers in the United States and is regarded as one of the most venerable in the world, particularly after their uncovering of the Watergate scandal.

“Breaking the news of the Obama dog can rightfully be considered on par with the importance of bringing down Richard Nixon. Both were exclusives and both came about in times when people were concerned about the very relevancy of newspapers and reporting in general. Then it was television that was the threat, now it’s the web, but both situations are as dire for the industry,” said Scrape TV Media analyst Sarah Piper. “What the industry really needs are shocks like this to remind the public of how important traditional media truly is and how it still has a place in society. While it’s unlikely that the web will just disappear overnight as a result of this story, it gives newspapers a new degree of hope. One could say hope they can believe in.”

It was only a few days ago that Associated Press chairman Dean Singleton made a speech decrying the rise of new media and the continued decline of newspapers. While many see the likelihood of a single story singlehandedly saving the entire print industry as low, the fact that the Obama family chose a traditional media outlet for and exclusive on such a pressing story proves to many that the old guard still has some tricks up its sleeve.

“From Washington to London, from Moscow to Pyongyang, people across the world
are going to be reading this story under the banner of ‘The Washington Post’ and that means a lot. With them gaining the exclusive such an important and global story such as this, they have proven once again the value of in depth reporting,” continued Piper. “This is the kind of reporting that only traditional media can do and it has brought the world together in a way the web has thus far not been able to do. This will hopefully hearten the old guard and give them a much needed boost.”

Reportedly the newspaper is looking at reteaming the Watergate reporters Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein to investigate the lineage of the Presidential pet.   

Edward Bastil, Political Correspondent  

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