President Obama, who talked about his iPod playlist during the campaign, now claims he doesn't know how to use the device. White House photo, Pete Souza
Does a staffer operate Obama’s iPod?
It’s commencement season, and like last year, the president is making the rounds.
Speaking at Hampton University, President Obama warned the students there about the effects of technology:
And meanwhile, you’re coming of age in a 24/7 media environment that bombards us with all kinds of content and exposes us to all kinds of arguments, some of which don’t always rank that high on the truth meter. And with iPods and iPads; and Xboxes and PlayStations — none of which I know how to work — information becomes a distraction, a diversion, a form of entertainment, rather than a tool of empowerment, rather than the means of emancipation. So all of this is not only putting pressure on you; it’s putting new pressure on our country and on our democracy.
Let’s forget for a moment that devices that play music and video games have been around for decades (“It would be like having Jimmy Carter warn in 1980 about the evils of transistor radios and album-oriented rock on FM stations.“).
The president is lying when he says he doesn’t “know how to work” an iPod (and I would assume he can figure out an iPad). He has an iPod. He told Rolling Stone in June 2008 that Bob Dylan, Yo-Yo Ma, Sheryl Crow and Jay-Z were all on the iPod he was using during the campaign.
We already know Obama is an Xbox hypocrite and that the president’s Twitter account is run by a staffer (or the DNC).
Is some White House aide always on hand to operate Obama’s iPod as well, since he doesn’t know how to work it?
Sources:
The White House, May 9, 2010
Remarks by the President at Hampton University Commencement
The Associated Press, June 25, 2008
Barack Obama’s iPod: Bob Dylan, Yo-Yo Ma, Sheryl Crow, Jay-Z
