First Guns

The Arms in Winter

Apparently, some people think we should only come out to play in spring and summer. ABC News, ably stepping up to cover this important story, has a piece on us titled “Obama’s Choice to Bare Arms Causes Uproar.” Uproar! The subtitle of the story reads “First Lady’s Sleeveless Fashion Choices Draw Criticism.”

What is the basis of the criticism? ABC quotes Chicago Tribune style reporter Wendy Donahue, who says that she heard from “some folks who work on the hill” and “one reader” on the topic. This reader and those folks told Wendy that our appearance at President Obama’s February 24 address to Congress and in Michelle’s official photo are somehow “informal and out of season.” They think we shouldn’t be seen in the colder months of the year. We didn’t notice people having seasonal issues with Cindy McCain wearing turtlenecks and leather blazers all summer but whatever.

What we find really interesting is Ms. Donahue’s sources for this “criticism,” which ABC accepted without question. In her story on the topic, Ms. Donahue quoted one reader by name. One. She told ABC that the Trib—which ran five stories on us in a five-day period—received “hundreds of online responses about the first lady’s outfit,” inplying that all of these reponses agreed with her premise that we are inappropriate and out of season. Well, ABC News, we checked the Tribune site, something you obviously did not do. While Donahue’s story did get 200+ responses, most of them were not finding issue with us, but with the story itself.

Why the heck is this news? Who cares if she wears a sleeveless dress. I am not the biggest fan of the Obamas, but I would rather debate my difference in opinion over policies than worry about such trivial things as what dress she wears or what kind of dog they get.

Are you kidding me? Someone wasted 4 minutes of their lives reporting on this? Our country is on a collision course with the fate of Rome and some 90 year old biddy’s half wit comment about the first ladies attire warrants press? Let’s create a new millionaire with the first person to invent a tool that will help jerk the entire media monsters head out of its collective arse

We suspect that Ms. Donahue, looking for a “fresh take” after several days of arm stories, seized on one letter from one reader and conjured an imaginary backlash, which then got picked up by ABC. We’d expect this kind of stuff from the internets, but the increasing blog-ization of major networks and newspapers is troubling. Can someone email Susan Faludi?

We took some comfort that when this was covered on air, the ABC correspondent went sleeveless in solidarity with us. We suggest a few preacher curls and some journalism classes.