What do Sports Illustrated, The Economist and Sports Illustrated all have in common? They all can claim President Obama as a loyal reader. According to a Washington Post report on Obama’s first year in office, Obama is “the first truly wired president, the first to have Internet access at his desk and to converse regularly via e-mail.” As such, he often reads news online and “looks for offbeat blogs and news stories, tracking down firsthand reporting and seeking out writers with opinions about his policies.”
The Post also says that Obama was “particularly interested in Atlantic Online’s Andrew Sullivan’s tweeting of the Iranian elections last year.” He loves magazines, including the New Yorker, the Economist, Sports Illustrated and Rolling Stone.
He does watch TV, but it’s mostly for sports. Senior adviser Valerie Jarrett says that he will watch press secretary Robert Gibbs’ briefings, but his favorite network is definitely EPSN. “Most of his television revolves around [ESPN's] ‘SportsCenter.’ I don’t think there are a lot of television shows he gets inspiration from other than sports,” she laughed.
Though critics sometimes call Obama detached, he also tries to stay connected by reading 10 letters a day from his massive pile of mail from average Americans. I think it’s clear that Obama really wants to know what’s going in his country and not just hear what his staffers tell him about polls. Is there anything else that should be on his list? (Ahem, Twirlit. Maybe if we got Michelle to check it out first …)
