Benedetto offered two reasons to explain why Obama has managed to dodge criticism so far.
First, "Donald Trump's bombastic candidacy is a huge distraction and often blocks out or obliterates more-substantive issues," he noted in an opinion piece for the Wall Street Journal. "As for Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton, they both are angling for a third consecutive Democratic administration, so are not eager to criticize" the president.
Second, Obama, according to the political commentator, is "a deft manipulator of the media," who heads "a savvy public-relations machine."Obama's PR team is so good that it succeeded in marketing the president "like a Hollywood celebrity, a role he obligingly and successfully plays."
The team's key strategy involves placing Obama "in as many positive news and photo situations as possible," while dispatching a member of his administration to handle challenging issues. "That way the problems don't appear to be Mr. Obama's problem, and he is free to bask in the good news," Benedetto explained.
Those reporters who try to provide a point of view that is different from the one offered by the White House are, according to the commentator, "cast by the administration as spoilsports or, worse, cut off from sources."
The nuclear deal, Benedetto noted, is a prime case in point that illustrates how the Obama administration handles its relations with the media and gets its message across – unchallenged.
"The administration's easy orchestration of the media story line about the Iranian nuclear deal, recently revealed by Deputy National Security Adviser Ben Rhodes, only scratches the surface of the White House's skill at managing a media happy to be managed," Benedetto pointed out.
