July 30, 2009 4:28 PM

Media Laps Up Obama Beer Summit

By
Stephen Smith
Topics
White House
(CBS/AP)
For the president, it was a gesture to bring people together.

For the media, it was an opportunity to tap a keg of sud-soaked clich?s.

Ever since President Obama announced he had invited Harvard professor Henry Louis Gates and Cambridge police Sergeant James Crowley over for a conciliatory beer, the press has tried to out-clever each other with hops-heavy headlines.

"Brewhaha" read more than one headline for the event aimed at quelling tensions over the controversial arrest.

Though the president has downplayed the event, news organizations are drunk with snappy puns.

CBS News has anointed the event "Coalition of the Swilling" and the represented beers "Red, Light and Blue." And Katie Couric's Evening News lead in? "The cop, the prof and the President .. It all comes to a head."

ABC's Jake Tapper is calling it "the audacity of hops."

"Ale to the Chief," declared MSNBC.

Of course, which beer the imbiber-in-chief would select stirred up another level of "news." The New York Post even ran odds on the lager lottery in their piece "Beer Seers Pick Powwow Fave."

But for beer aficionados in Philadelphia, unimpressed with the beverages of choice, the summit was deemed "watered down."

Of course, many in the media are eager to put the "Suds Summit" to rest.

As yesterday's headline in the Washington Examiner put it succinctly: "Beer fest: Please get it over with. Thank you."

Other "beer summit" headlines:

  • "A cop, a Politician and a Professor walk into a Bar…" (Gawker)

  • "The moment is beer: Obama, Gates, Crowley to chat" (San Francisco Chronicle)

  • "Obama Beer Summit Choice Make for a Happy Hour" (NPR)

  • "Will Beer Summit Leave Hangover for Obama?" (Business Exchange)

    • Stephen Smith

      Stephen Smith is a news producer and sports editor for CBSNews.com

    Add a Comment
    by TheQG March 22, 2010 5:54 PM EDT
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    Reply to this comment
    by terry_anna July 30, 2009 8:22 PM EDT
    All this concern around a contrived "beer summit," a silly, silly spin and fascination around communal beer, and yet, more truthfully, just a signature ritual when macho egos are involved.

    The only real "teaching moment" in all this is Lucia Whalen. Her integrity, honesty, and courage, is something to be celebrated... with or without the beer.
    Reply to this comment
    by lorinkundert July 30, 2009 7:56 PM EDT
    What a disgusting waste of time and taxpayers money, if I drank a beer at work I would be unemployed.
    Reply to this comment
    by bajajohn1 July 30, 2009 7:55 PM EDT
    Seems to me like it is close to 5:30 somewhere, so a few cold brewskis are definitely on the menu. Hola!
    Reply to this comment
    by dwilson59 July 30, 2009 7:26 PM EDT
    This is a joke just a joke.
    Reply to this comment
    by brenda_wltr July 30, 2009 6:53 PM EDT
    iam not a racist, makes you wonder if it had been a black officer arresting a prominent white professor, would there be this much backlash?? obama should have kept his mouth shut. this was a local situation not a national one. and if this professor house was really being broke into and the police did not act this way would he also say its because he is a black man?
    Reply to this comment
    by velma179 July 30, 2009 7:46 PM EDT
    Starting a comment with a defensive statement?

    That is quite telling to begin with and then your entire point has to do with "what ifs" that are all about this and that individual's race.
    by SouthwestisBest July 30, 2009 6:28 PM EDT
    Do we have to have 5 articles on Obama trying to get out of trouble for his smart mouthed unthinking remarks beneath the dignity and intellect of the Oval Office? Small man, big office he lives in partying at our expense.
    Reply to this comment
    by mattcat25 July 30, 2009 4:52 PM EDT
    It's about time for them to have had that brew on ice!
    Reply to this comment
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