An LA Times story on Jon Stewart's farewell on "The Daily Show" with U.S. President Barack Obama confirmed to be guest on Tuesday, July 21, has revived debate if American presidents are degrading the office by guesting on TV talk shows.
The Tuesday guesting would be Obama's third as president and seventh since he became a public figure. Besides "The Daily Show," the president had also guested in David Letterman's "Late Show" as one of the final guests, "The Tonight Show," "Jimmy Kimmel Live!" and "The Colbert Show."
Obama also guests on non-traditional media outlets such as "Between Two Ferns" and "WTF." Appearances even on comedy Web series and podcasts result in headlines. One recent example was on June 19 when he used the N-word on Marc Maron's podcast while tackling racism.
But while journalists welcome those guesting by the president as an opportunity to get stories, some Americans are not happy with Obama doing the talk-show circuit.
Hours after "The Daily Show" announced that Stewart with have his last show on August 6, while Trevor Noah, a South African comic, will be the new host beginning September 28, Rob Landeros tweeted "When Obama went on talk shows, Fox New & other RW critics accused him of degrading the office and being unpresidential." Landeros was actually replying to a July 17 comment from Brasilmagic that aspiring presidential candidate Donald Trump's verbal fights with celebrities is a sign of lack of elegance and maturity to be president.
Even before Friday, Twitter members have shared their disagreement with Obama's TV talk show appearances. Pilot Gal tweeted on July 8, "@POTUS OBAMA A MEDIA DARLING! WASTES OUT MONEY, GOES ON TALK SHOWS! MEANWHILE, LATINOS FESTER IN CAMPS! USES AIR FORCE ONE FOR FUN!"
Her comment has similar ideas with Steph Burke who wrote: "Anyone else think that Obama having a marketing team is gross? I don't care how many talk shows you've been on, go be president."
It is not just netizens but also Conservatives who are critical of Obama's TV guesting. When he appeared on Jimmy Fallon's show in 2012, Friends host Gretchen Carlson said, "I personally do not agree with the highest office of the land, the most important figure in the world going on these comedy shows. I think it lowers the status of the office," quotes Mr. Media Training.
An online poll conducted by Hutchinson News in May showed that many share Carlson's view. Almost 60 percent of those who voted online believes it is unprofessional for POTUS to guest in late night talk shows, 24 percent said they enjoyed watching the president's appearance and 16 percent do not care.
A graph by US News showed that other presidents, namely George W. Bush, Bill Clinton, George H.W. Bush and Jimmy Carter had also appeared on talk shows, it is Obama who has the most guesting. Three other presidents also had TV appearances: John Kennedy on Tonight Show in 1960, Richard Nixon on Rowan & Martin's Laugh-in in 1968 and Ronald Reagan in "The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson" in 1975.
Obama is apparently following a POTUS tradition started by Kennedy, but he has certainly upped the game that the next president would probably attempt to even top Obama's record.