Is The Media Cashing In On Barack Obama? "Yes We Can"



(NBC's Barack Obama DVD via, of all places, NBCUniversalStore)

The flurry of magazine covers from periodicals as varied as People ("Inside Obama's family election celebration") and Newsweek ("buy this limited edition") begs the question: Is the news media cashing in on President-elect Barack Obama?

Of course they are.

And why not. The incoming Presidency of Barack Obama is American history, the elevation of a people who were once slaves, breaking the 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue barrier.

This also happens to be, we cannot fail to note, one of the most difficult economies for the media -- from newspapers to magazines to even the television industry -- so why not cash in on a popular President-elect. The day after election day lines outside of The New York Times were block long in midtown (And it is selling on eBay for $70). Twice the amount of Chicago Sun-Times post-election editions were published. Even African-American weeklies like The New Amsterdam News felt the spike in their historic editions. Obama covers are the rage.

Last week a "60 Minutes" episode on Obama's advisors -- not the President-elect -- was the top rated show on television. And this week an interview by Steve Kroft of the President-elect and the incoming First Lady scored "60 Minutes" their best ratings in 9 years.

Clearly a new President is news, and he just happens to be media gold. But when does the Obama capitalizing by the media get louche?

Howard Kurtz of the WashPo, media critic, introduces a healthy (if killjoyish) dose of skepticism into the mix:

"Are journalists fostering the notion that Obama is invincible, the leader of what the New York Times dubbed 'Generation O'?

"Each writer, each publication, seems to reach for more eye-popping superlatives. 'OBAMAISM -- It's a Kind of Religion,' says New York magazine. 'Those of us too young to have known JFK's Camelot are going to have our own giddy Camelot II to enrapture and entertain us,' Kurt Andersen writes. The New York Post has already christened it 'BAM-A-LOT.'

"'Here we are,' writes Salon's Rebecca Traister, 'oohing and aahing over what they'll be wearing, and what they'll be eating, what kind of dog they'll be getting, what bedrooms they'll be living in, and what schools they'll be attending. It feels better than good to sniff and snurfle through the Obamas' tastes and habits. . . . Who knew we had in us the capacity to fall for this kind of idealized Americana again?'

"But aren't media people supposed to resist this kind of hyperventilating?"

More here.