As President Obama battles slumping poll numbers and multiple world crises , twice in the past few days he has laid part of the blame for an anxious public at the feet of the media . While he 's not the first president to fault some of his problems on journalists , he has added a new twist to the argument . Monday at a Labor Day event in Milwaukee the President touted some of the positive economic news the nation has seen adding : `` So , look , I 'm saying all this just because sometimes , you know , if you 're watching TV , it 's just kind of a whole downer . Now , we 've got struggles . We 've got work to do . But there are a lot of reasons to be optimistic about America . '' On Friday he also discussed why the public feels so anxious about the economy despite recovery from the great recession and declining unemployment numbers . He told a Democratic National Committee fundraiser in Purchase , New York , some of those reasons for the uneasiness include those still unable to find a job and slower growth in wages and incomes . But then he turned to the media and its impact . `` Second reason people are feeling anxious is that if you watch the nightly news , it feels like the world is falling apart . '' Obama acknowledged , `` We are living through some extraordinarily challenging times . A lot of it has to do with changes that are taking place in the Middle East in which an old order that had been in place for 50 years , 60 years , 100 years was unsustainable , and was going to break up at some point . '' But at the same time he blamed the explosion of social media for accentuating this concern . `` The truth of the matter is , is that the world has always been messy . In part , we 're just noticing now because of social media and our capacity to see in intimate detail the hardships that people are going through . The good news is that American leadership has never been more necessary , and there 's really no competition out there for the ideas and the values that can create the sort of order that we need in this world . '' These are not the first times the President has played media critic . In 2012 while discussing descriptions of his image as aloof , he told Time magazine , `` My suspicion is that this whole critique has to do with the fact that I do n't go to a lot of Washington parties and , as a consequence , the Washington press corps maybe just does n't feel like I 'm in the mix enough with them , and they figure , well , if I 'm not spending time with them , I must be cold and aloof . '' Also in 2012 during a commencement speech at Barnard College he told the students : `` No wonder that faith in our institutions has never been lower , particularly when good news does n't get the same kind of ratings as bad news anymore . Every day you receive a steady stream of sensationalism and scandal and stories with a message that suggest change is n't possible ; that you ca n't make a difference ; that you wo n't be able to close that gap between life as it is and life as you want it to be . '' And in 2013 he said in an interview with the New Republic that `` one of the biggest factors is going to be how the media shapes debates '' while talking about whether some Republicans would work with the White House .
President Obama said Monday , ` ` if you 're watching TV , it 's just kind of a whole . '' ` ` If you watch the nightly news , it feels like the world is falling apart , '' he said Friday . This is n't the first time Obama has been a to critics . ` ` Good news does n't get the same kind of attention as bad news anymore , '' he said in 2012 .