Former President Barack Obama called out what he perceived as a double standard in media coverage of the tragedy of the OceanGate Titan submersible versus the migrant boat that sank off the coast of Greece last week.
In an interview with CNN host Christiane Amanpour in Athens, Greece Thursday night, the 44th president railed against “inequality” in our “democracy” and claimed the fact that news of the missing OceanGate sub dominated the news cycle, while the sinking of a migrant boat in the Mediterranean Sea did not, is an example of this “inequality.”
Obama noted that “democracy is not going to be healthy” due to this type of “obscene inequality.”
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Obama’s pre-taped interview aired after reports that the OceanGate Titan sub carrying five people to visit the Titanic wreckage in the North Atlantic Ocean most likely imploded on its way to the famous ship’s resting place.
That news followed a week of media coverage devoted to every update on the search and rescue mission to find the sub after it lost communication with the surface on Sunday.
The other tragedy Obama mentioned was the capsizing of a migrant boat off the coast of Greece last week that most likely resulted in hundreds of deaths. The boat carrying around 750 migrants was mid-route from Libya to Italy when the ship sank, with only around one hundred passengers being rescued.
The other hundreds of passengers were reported missing and are most likely dead. EU Commissioner for Home Affairs Ylva Johansson claimed in a press conference that the sinking “seems like this is the worst ever tragedy we’ve seen in the Mediterranean.”
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Obama condemned the disparate amount of media coverage between the two events to Amanpour.
He began, saying, “Our democracy is not going to be healthy with the levels of inequality that we’ve seen generated from globalization, automation, the decline in unions. Obscene inequality. You think about news of the day. Generally, we’re not talking about news of the day, but right now we have 24 hour coverage – and I understand it – of this submarine, this submersible that tragically right now is lost at the bottom of the sea.”
He continued, saying, “At the same time, right here, just off the coast of Greece, we had 700 people dead. 700 migrants who were apparently being smuggled into here and it’s made news but it’s not dominating in the same way and in some ways it’s indicative of the degree to which peoples’ life chances have grown so disparate.”
The former president also remarked on this double standard in coverage between the two stories at the Stavros Niarchos Foundation event Athens that same day.
While being interviewed in front of a crowd, Obama claimed, “You think about what’s happening this week. There is a potential tragedy unfolding with the submarine that is getting, you know, minute-to-minute, coverage, all around the world. And you know it’s understandable, because we all want and pray that those folks are rescued.”
He added, “But the fact that that’s got so much more attention than 700 people who sank. That’s an untenable situation.”
