The selfie stick – or “narcisstick,” as CNN’s Zoe Li called it – makes you look like an “assclown,” according to the St. Paul Pioneer Press in Minnesota. Even if you’re the president of the United States.
Over the weekend, the newspaper’s sports producer, Kevin Cusick, used his “Loop Ten” slideshow to call out President Barack Obama for using a selfie stick in a spoof video that was meant to promote health care.
— Joyce Karam (@Joyce_Karam) February 17, 2015
The photo description called selfies "A fool-proof way to make yourself look like a self-absorbed assclown."
It was later edited to read "self-absorbed celebrity,” and Cusick and the newspaper continued to backtrack.
“After further review, it’s a poor choice of word,” Cusick explained in an email to Minneapolis-St. Paul Fox affiliate KMSP. “I must have been in an especially foul mood last night. I’ve toned it down a bit.”
Also included in the slideshow was a photo of Brian Williams ("Wait till you get a load of his 'Pope Blessed Me' fable"), Kim Kardashian (a "tramp mom") and Oregon Gov. John Kitzhaber (D), who announced his resignation last week.
Last week, BuzzFeed published a video of the president mocking himself by making funny faces in the mirror, and using a so-called “selfie stick” to encourage people to sign up for health care under the Affordable Care Act.
The video also hit a nerve with Wall Street Journal deputy editorial page editor Bret Stephens.
In an op-ed titled "President BuzzFeed," Stephens faulted Obama for trying to come across as plugged-in with millennials.
"If communicating with 20-somethings as if they are 11-year-olds is a way to get them to behave like grown-ups,” Stephens wrote, “then maybe the White House has at last found a way to make good on its make-believe enrollment numbers.”
Fox News host Heather Childers chastised the President last week for filming the video on the same day American hostage Kayla Mueller died while being held by Islamic State militants.
Since it was posted to Buzzfeed’s Facebook page on February 12, the video of Obama has been viewed nearly 50 million times.
