CNSNews.com's excessive concern with specific words President Obama did or didn't say spread to President Biden -- and it never stopped nitpicking what Obama said.
By Terry Krepel Posted 6/2/2023
One of CNSNews.com's longtime word obsessions regarding Barack Obama was been complaining that he referred to himself too much in speeches: a 2009 column by editor Terry Jeffrey railed at Obama for this, and Jeffrey went on to devote entire articles counting how many times Obama used first person singular in a given speech. For instance:
By comparison, Jeffrey and CNS had few complaints about Donald Trump's rampant narcissism.
And even though Obama had left the White House years ago, CNS wasn't about to give up on that narrative. When Obama spoke at a November 2021 climate summit, the powers that be at CNS decided the time was right for more Obama-bashing potshots. First up was Susan Jones to complain about the content of Obama's speech:
Addressing climate change "is going to be really hard," President Barack Obama said in a speech Monday to the United Nations climate conference in Glasgow, Scotland.
Speaking at the event in person, which means he burned fuel to fly there, Obama dedicated much of his speech to young people, urging them to make true believers of their elders and "to vote the issue -- vote like your life depends on it, because it does."
Jones made sure to note that Obama "used a personal example" by noting that he could afford to alter his lifestyle but most people can't.
Then it was flashback time with an anonymous article credited only to "CNSNews.com Staff" -- but almost certainly Jeffrey, since this was his bizarre bugaboo -- counting all the first person singular references in Obama's speech:
Former President Barack Obama used the first person singular pronouns “I” and “me” 56 times during the speech he delivered on Monday at the COP 26 United Nations Climate Change Conference in Glasgow, Scotland.
Here is a video of his multitudinous expressions of "I" and "me:"
Obama set the tone early on in his speech, when he used the word “I’ about once every fourteenth word.
“I am a private citizen now so trips like this feel a little bit different than they used to,” Obama said. “I don’t get invited to the big group photo. Traffic is a thing again. Music doesn’t play when I walk into the room. On the positive side, I can give a speech like this without wearing a tie and not create a scandal back home. I hope. But even though I’m not required to attend summits like this anymore, old habits die hard.”
Jeffrey has never explained why Obama using first person singular sets him off so much -- and why Trump's narcissism doesn't bother him at all even though it has caused even further division in the country.
CNS later served a variation on that theme -- bash Obama for using the second person! An anonymously written Nov. 2 article asserted:
Former President Barack Obama gave a speech in North Las Vegas, Nevada on Tuesday night to support candidates in that state and in his speech had a moment where he repeatedly stated the word “your.”
“You know, Cousin Pooki,” said Obama at one point in the speech as recorded in a CSPAN video.
“You know, your, your, ah, your, you know, your, your, you know, your, your, your, your Nephew Cesa,” said Obama.
“They’re planning. They tell you they are going to vote, but they’re on their couch playing a video game. You got to talk to them,” said Obama.
As with the other article, while the author is anonymous, it was almost certainly written by Jeffrey. No explanation was provided as to why CNS considered this worthy of devoting a "news" story.
But CNS wasn't content to rehash old Obama attacks despite the fact that Obama hasn't been president in years. President Biden is the latest nitpicking target, and CNS started obsessing over how he repeats certain words in his speeches. Susan Jones complained in a Oct. 5 article:
President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris convened the second meeting of their reproductive rights taskforce on Tuesday, each giving introductory remarks and slamming pro-life views as "extremist."
Reading from a binder when his moment came, Biden used the word "extreme" or "extremist" six times in five minutes to describe abortion bans and the people who support such bans.
After citing each example and even putting it in boldface, Jones then went the gaslighting route to pretend that Democrats are the real extremists on abortion:
Some pro-life Americans, including Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, have said Democrats are the real extremists on abortion:
In a speech on the Senate floor in May, McConnell accused Democrats of supporting "an extreme and radical abortion policy."
“Our Democratic colleagues want to vote for abortion on demand through all nine months, until the moment before a baby is born," McConnell said.
"Democrats’ radical bill is as extreme as extreme gets. It ignores modern science. It is tone-deaf to public opinion. Nothing about their bill merely codifies the current case law on this issue. Their extreme proposal goes way, way beyond codifying the status quo. It would roll back many existing laws.
"Democrats’ bill would functionally allow elective abortion through all nine months. Abortion until the moment of birth.
Jones cited no example of an abortion taking place at "the moment of birth."
Craig Bannister did his own word count for a Nov. 30 article:
President Joe Biden repeatedly promised his audience that he was being truthful on Tuesday, when he addressed a South Korean-owned computer chip manufacturer in Bay City, Michigan.
On 29 occasions during his speech, Biden reassured those in attendance either that “I mean it,” it’s “not a joke,” it’s “a fact,” or he was “serious” about what he said.
Biden said 13 times that he meant what he said. Three of those times, Biden revealed that he “really” meant what he said, and another three times he explained that he “seriously” meant it.
Four of his comments were “not a joke,” Biden explained.
Nine times, Biden declared that he was providing a “fact,” including three times he doubled down on the claim.
Biden said that three of his comments were “serious.”
On multiple occasions, Biden used more than one of the reassurances in the same sentence, such as when he declared union workers to be the world’s most highly skilled and trained:
We cannot recall an instance in which CNS called out how many times Donald Trump used a certain word or phrase, even though there are many opportunities for it to do so -- for instance, his multiple claims that "big, strong" men keep coming up to him and crying.
Christmas word obsession
CNS' obsession with Biden's words even extended to his Christmas messages. In December 2020, CNS repeated Biden's Christmas message, though it waited until four days after Christmas to report on it and refused to identify him as president-elect -- not a surprise, since it was still promoting Donald Trump's election fraud conspiracies. CNS didn't even report on Biden's 2021 Christmas message.
But for the 2022 Christmas message, CNS decided to nitpick. A Dec. 23 article by Susan Jones nitpicked how Biden delivered it:
Instead of an end-of-year press conference, where he might be asked a few difficult questions -- about the border chaos, for example -- President Joe Biden delivered a "Christmas Address to the Nation," as the White House described it.
His message: "Things are getting better." And: "Spread a little kindness."
The message was delivered at the White House, with no reporters present.
An article by Craig Bannister later that day nitpicked the words he used, then compared him unfavorably to the last president:
This year, when President Joe Biden spoke at his second annual White House Christmas tree lighting ceremony, he neglected to mention either “Christ” or “Jesus,” just as he did last year.
Not until the last two sentences of his remarks, did he wish Americans a “Merry Christmas” and mention “God” (“God bless you.”)
At the 2021 Christmas tree lighting ceremony, on December 2, Biden did actually commemorate a birthday: that of his Interior Secretary, not that of Jesus Christ (“It is wonderful to join you here on your birthday, Madam Secretary. Happy birthday”).
In contrast, at his last Christmas tree lighting ceremony in 2019, President Donald Trump reminded Americans of the Christian heritage and beliefs that Christmas trees represent:
Bannister didn't note that there's little evidence that Trump lives the words he spoke, nor did he explain why the president must shoehorn Christianity into a secular ceremony.
In an apparent attempt at partisan contrast, managing editor Michael W. Chapman cranked out two articles on the Christmas messages from more conservatively correct Republican presidents, Ronald Reagan and Donald Trump; Chapman made sure to put their references to Jesus by name in the headlines. For unexplained reasons, Chapman also reposted a 2019 article recounting how "As heavy clouds and torrential rain stalled the advance of the U.S. Third Army during the Battle of the Bulge in December 1944, Gen. George S. Patton ordered the Third Army chaplain to compose a prayer for good weather to kill Germans, to 'crush the oppression and wickedness of our enemies.'"
From there, the nitpicking duties went to CNS' recently arrived commentary editor, Georgiana Constantin-Parke,who began her Dec. 29 column with a bit of an apology (while also making sure to insert her employer's senility narrative):
There already have been several articles about President Joe Biden’s 2022 Christmas message. And while some might see this type of scrutiny as nitpicking or quite a tedious hobby of the right wing or right-leaning individuals in general, it is essential that one is always aware and awake, as the reality of faith and the burden of freedom demand. Analyzing the actions and words of our leaders is vital to understanding our potential futures.
However, firstly, one must acknowledge that both he and his speech writer are human, and therefore cannot be expected to be free of flaws. On the other hand, they are also not expected to be all flaws.
Secondly, let us take into consideration that this is probably not an easy time for him, as the memory of the death of his first wife and one of his children many years ago around this time is not one which will ever go away. We should offer prayers for the souls of his departed loved ones and be understanding of this difficult time for him and his family.
Finally, whether he is in the (arguably) early stages of Alzheimer’s, or he lies habitually, or is no longer the Christian he claims to be, or perhaps he is doing the very work of those who would see the church dismantled around the world, makes no difference in one respect: he is, somehow, the President of the United States.
Trump lied habitually, but CNS was rarely concerned about that. Constantin-Parke then moved to a partisan attack on Biden's message:
So what was his message?
At first glance, it was one that called people to unity, to remember the light for which we all stand, no matter our beliefs, and to be kind and empathetic to one another. In a nutshell, it was a classic example of ‘do as I say not as I do’ rhetoric -- his messages to the electorate have rarely been uniting or empathetic or ones to steer people toward the light of goodness.
Encouraging the mutilation of children through speedy so-called gender-affirming care, treating children in the womb as if they were parasites there to steal the mother’s independence, and calling for an end to patience with the unvaccinated, among other things, did anything but unite or inspire kindness in people.
Then the real nitpicking began, with Constantin-Parke being weirdly perturbed that Biden said "Son of God" instead of "Jesus Christ":
An important part of the speech revolved around, as some have noted, hinting to Christ rather than saying His name. This is true. But perhaps the more noteworthy concern was the way he talked about Christianity and the picture he painted of religion and faith in general.
To start off, the language used was one of an objective observer rather than a participant in faith. He stated that Christmas is about the birth of a child that “Christians believe to be the son of God.” It would perhaps have been more appropriate for a practicing Christian to have noted “ a child all of us Christians know as the Son of God, the Christ.”
By distancing himself from his declared faith, Catholicism, he made a clear statement. Perhaps they did not want him to seem overzealous or fanatical, but rather inclusive. But the problem with this approach is the message that it sends to everyone.
It wasn't until near the end of her column that Constantin-Parke acknowledged that Biden might be the president of all Americans, not just the Christian ones, and that his message should be at least somewhat universal -- yet she still insisted on slamming his Christmas message anyway:
Of course, I could be wrong and he could truly have meant to speak of joy and unity and show himself as the president of all Americans, not just Christians. But even then, you cannot stand and defend peoples’ faiths while distancing yourself from your own. Not to say that he should be the most devout Christian, but if he just does not trust in Christ anymore, why lie about it? His actions speak quite clearly. And many would probably call him brave for stating his disbelief or change of creed.
Or perhaps he has not pondered nor does he care about the discrepancies between his words and actions. This is politics after all. But then again, even politicians have to tell some truths sometimes, otherwise there is no point to any political system. So, where are Biden’s truths?
The real issue is that he is diminishing the idea of religion and faith in general and shrouding it in a light of embarrassment and myth. This is a more diplomatic version of what the communists did in Socialist Romania. They ridiculed faith and church so that no “serious scientist” and “man of reason” would ever dare think of “such nonsense.”
This is the direction the Christmas message was heading. It was not the avoidance of the words Jesus Christ or the watered-down presentation of his own declared faith that were the most problematic, but the combination of what was blurred and what was made clear.
So inclusive Christmas messages are sending America down the road to communism? Constantin-Parke didn't explain why the president must force-feed Christianity to Americans who aren't Christian.
