Letter: Nothing wrong with 'slow jamming'

Talk about it

I read Ms. Parker’s opinion piece complaining that President Obama was not sufficiently presidential when he appeared on Jimmy Fallon’s late night TV show. For readers unaware of this new manufactured controversy, President Obama explained student loan interest rates on the Jimmy Fallon Show using “slow jamming,” an entertainment mode made famous by Fallon and NBC news anchor Brian Williams. Ms. Parker acknowledged that the president neither said nor did anything objectionable. She merely disapproved of the format.

Two thoughts come to mind. First, people who dislike what you are saying but know that you have the right of it will often hide behind a criticism of how you said it. Ms. Parker knows she will sound foolish or callous opposing the president’s plan to keep student loan interest rates down. Since she cannot attack the message, she has chosen to attack the method by which the message was delivered.

My second thought is this. President Obama was addressing young people in college or considering college. He chose a mode of communication appropriate to his audience. Effectively getting a message to your intended audience will often elicit criticism from your opponents. Republicans probably complained that FDR was insufficiently presidential when he spoke informally to the American people in his famous fireside chats.

I disagree with Ms. Parker. I was both entertained and enlighten by President Obama’s presentation. I suspect that the complainers simply do not want to see the president succeed in keeping down college loan interest rates. Or, more accurately, they would prefer he simply not succeed — at anything.

Tags: opinion, letters