US President Barack Obama’s frequent remarks on the spread of information in the social media age have fueled rumors about his life after the White House.
However, his team on Friday quashed speculation that he is going to launch a career in media.
“@POTUS is interested in the changing ways people consume info, but he has no plans to get into the media business after he leaves office,” White House communications director Jen Psaki said in a tweet, referring to Obama by his Twitter handle.
It was apparently in response to an article published on Friday on the Mic news Web site that Obama was considering working in digital media and “launching his own media company.”
Numerous times during the campaign to pick his successor, Obama expressed concern about how information is distributed and digested.
The current media ecosystem “means everything is true and nothing is true,” he told The New Yorker. “The capacity to disseminate misinformation, wild conspiracy theories, to paint the opposition in wildly negative light without any rebuttal — that has accelerated in ways that much more sharply polarize the electorate and make it very difficult to have a common conversation.”
Asked by Rolling Stone about his transition out of the Oval Office, Obama said that he wanted to set up his presidential center to focus on training and empowering up and coming leaders.
“How do we rethink our storytelling, the messaging and the use of technology and digital media, so that we can make a persuasive case across the country?” he asked rhetorically.
On his plans after leaving office, he said: “You know, I’m gonna sleep for a couple of weeks when I get out of here, take my wife on a well-deserved vacation.”
Obama confirmed plans to write a book in his first year out of office.
Nearly half of China’s major cities are suffering “moderate to severe” levels of subsidence, putting millions of people at risk of flooding, especially as sea levels rise, according to a study of nationwide satellite data released yesterday. The authors of the paper, published by the journal Science, found that 45 percent of China’s urban land was sinking faster than 3mm per year, with 16 percent at more than 10mm per year, driven not only by declining water tables, but also the sheer weight of the built environment. With China’s urban population already in excess of 900 million people, “even a small portion
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
HYPOCRISY? The Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs yesterday asked whether Biden was talking about China or the US when he used the word ‘xenophobic’ US President Joe Biden on Wednesday called for a hike in steel tariffs on China, accusing Beijing of cheating as he spoke at a campaign event in Pennsylvania. Biden accused China of xenophobia, too, in a speech to union members in Pittsburgh. “They’re not competing, they’re cheating. They’re cheating and we’ve seen the damage here in America,” Biden said. Chinese steel companies “don’t need to worry about making a profit because the Chinese government is subsidizing them so heavily,” he said. Biden said he had called for the US Trade Representative to triple the tariff rates for Chinese steel and aluminum if Beijing was
Beijing is continuing to commit genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in its western Xinjiang province, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a report published on Monday, ahead of his planned visit to China this week. The State Department’s annual human rights report, which documents abuses recorded all over the world during the previous calendar year, repeated language from previous years on the treatment of Muslims in Xinjiang, but the publication raises the issue ahead of delicate talks, including on the war in Ukraine and global trade, between the top U.S. diplomat and Chinese