A Mid-Term Report Card

By Phil Ponce | Published September 13, 2010

Recently, a Chicago Tribune story had a headline asking if President Obama was the “Velcro president,”  that is, whether he was being personally blamed for too many things.  We are now coming up to the half-way mark of the president’s term–a good time to assess how he’s doing overall.  And that’s exactly what I will do at a public forum tomorrow evening at Loyola University Chicago.  Some of the questions we’ll ask a top-notch panel include:

  • To what extent has the president kept his campaign promises?
  • Have the media been fair in holding him accountable?
  • Assess the media coverage thus far
  • Is it still credible to assert that there is a liberal bias in the media?
  • How effective have conservative media outlets/commentators been in shaping public discourse on the president’s decisions?

Below are the particulars (as lifted from a Chicago Headline Club press release):

TUESDAY: Ponce Hosts Media Panel to Assess Obama’s Midterm Performance

WHAT: Chicago Tonight anchor Phil Ponce and a panel of distinguished journalists and commentators will discuss media coverage of President Barack Obama, at “Promises Kept/Promises Broken: The Media’s Midterm Assessment of Barack Obama,” a forum at Loyola University Chicago.

WHO:
•    Mary Mitchell, columnist for the Chicago Sun-Times
•    Paul Green, director of Institute for Politics at Roosevelt University, and political analyst for WGN radio
•    Alden Loury, publisher of the Chicago Reporter, an investigative bi-monthly focusing on race and poverty issues in metropolitan Chicago
•    Dan Miller, a policy advisor at the Heartland Institute, the Chicago-based free market think tank

WHEN: 6 p.m. Tuesday, Sept. 14

WHERE: Loyola’s Water Tower Campus:  Kasbeer Hall, on the 15th Floor of Corboy Law Center, 25 E. Pearson St. A campus map is available at: http://www.luc.edu./valuess/campus/vt_watertower.html

DETAILS: Admission is free and open to the public, and there will be complimentary refreshments. The event is sponsored by Loyola’s School of Communications and its Student Chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists and the Chicago Headline Club, http://www.headlineclub.org

If you’re in the neighborhood, stop by and join us!

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  • June Irwin

    I would like to see a moritorium on judging every word and action of the President for at least one month. Lately the “story” is less about Obama and more about what his critics have to say.

  • E Fletcher

    The questions you have listed are right on target with a concern I have about how the media is covering President obama and the Democratic run Congress.
    This Congress and the President have passed a remarkable amount of extremely significant legislation. This must be one of the most productive Congresses (over a less than 2 year period) in the past 20 years.
    The health care legislation was comprehensive and included a number of extremely important changes. The finiancial reform has come in several pieces and has significant changes for banks, credit card companies and associated financial and investment organizations. The TARP legislation was enormous in preventing a general collapse of the entire world financial system. The cash for clunkers (cars) and cash for clunkers (for home related products) were inspired ideas (stimulating purchases and getting rid of old energy inefficient machines).
    I am disappointed in how little we hear sbout these legislative packages and how far-reaching ther changes (improvements) are going to be.
    I believe part of the problem is the complexity. Most reporters don’t take the time to read and understand these new laws. The other part is the way the laws become active over a long period of time. Some of the health care changes such as insurance exchanges and the rule prohibiting prior condition limitations dont kick in for years! Instead, we see the insurance companies like Wellpoint (BCBS in Ill) raising rates in anticipation of their collecting less money when the new provisions take place. The credit card legislation had the sme problem. I saw credit card companies cancelling cards with low use, to minimize the number of customers they have to convert after the new rules kick in.