Saturday, April 4, 2009

WTF!? Helene Cooper Compares Michelle Obama Unfavorably To Angelina Jolie.

Towards the end of NYT White House correspondent Helene Cooper's dispatch today from Strasbourg, France -- a mostly fawning account of Michelle Obama's European trip so far -- comes this bizarre, brief attack on the First Lady.

It is not exactly mastering nuclear physics to smile nicely, shake hands, and visit sick patients, the traditional job of a first lady. And Mrs. Obama has yet to stake out her own territory on a big do-gooding issue, à la Angelina Jolie and African poverty, or even Mrs. Sarkozy, who recently signed on with the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria as the fund’s first formal celebrity envoy.

WTF?!

The NYTPicker doesn't need to explain to anyone the absurdity of that paragraph. We're just here to make sure you read it.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

That paragraph looked like some editor stuck it in after the fact, to make the piece look balanced.

Anonymous said...

Give Helene a break! It is the truth at this point but MIchelle daughters should be her highest priority anyway.

Anonymous said...

The job of the press is to hold public officials accountable.

Demanding more from the first Lady by comparatively drawing from precedence, is at minimum anything but absurd.