President Barack Obama said he doesn't blame the media for an "if it bleeds, it leads," strategy, noting
in an interview with Vox editor in chief Ezra Klein and executive editor Matt Iglesias that policy stories are often an unsexy sell.
In his interview, however, the president weighed in on his belief when asked if the media "overstates" terror threats and creates alarm.
"Absolutely," Obama responded.
He added in response of how he believes the Iraq war impacted U.S. national security: "It is entirely legitimate for the American people to be deeply concerned when you’ve got a bunch of violent, vicious zealots who behead people or randomly shoot a bunch of folks in a deli in Paris. We devote enormous resources to that, and it is right and appropriate for us to be vigilant and aggressive in trying to deal with that — the same way a big city mayor’s got to cut the crime rate down if he wants that city to thrive."
But, noted the president: "We also have to attend to a lot of other issues, and we’ve got to make sure we’re right-sizing our approach so that what we do isn’t counterproductive. I would argue that our invasion of Iraq was counterproductive to the goal of keeping our country safe."
The interviews with both Vox and the upstart Buzzfeed are further evidence of the growth of online media and its power, earning a one-on-one presidential interview, to expand a message,
The New York Times reported.
The president was candid, noting his lowered expectations about what is achievable as he serves his final two years in office,
National Journal noted, including a growing media partisanship that keeps expanding.
"The balkanization of the media means that we just don't have a commonplace where we get common facts and a common world view the way we did 20, 30 years ago," he told Vox, in an interview that was released on Monday. "And that just keeps on accelerating."
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