Liberals on social media have spent the past few hours outraged over a picture of Kellyanne Conway, a top adviser to President Trump, sitting on a couch in the Oval Office with her shoes on.
Naturally, if liberals on social media are talking about something, liberals in the news media will pick up on it, and within hours of the controversy over this supposedly unprecedented breach of decorum and dignity in the Oval Office, stories started popping up everywhere.
The New York Times, USA Today, NBC News, CBS News, ABC News, AOL, and Us Weekly--just to name a few outlets--all ran breathless stories on Conway's supposed disrespect.
Yet here is an entire gallery of former President Barack Obama putting his feet on the Resolute Desk in the Oval Office that didn't seem to warrant widespread condemnation or scolding.
1 of 7 2 of 7 3 of 7 4 of 7 5 of 7 6 of 7 7 of 7
Oh the media covered the picture of President Obama standing with one foot on his desk while on the phone...but only to mock conservatives who thought this was disrespectful. Mediaite offered a solid synopsis of the tone back in 2013:
If you were hoping for one more overblown controversy to end your summer, your wish has been granted. President Obama put his foot on his desk in a White House photo, and although it admittedly does look a little cheesy, people are outraged over the leader of the free world placing his foot atop the Resolute Desk because it’s undignified and beneath the office of the president… although technically it’s in the office of the… the point is, people are not happy.
You see? Conservatives are so silly to be outraged over something as trivial as the President putting his feet on the desk! Who even cares, right? This is no big deal! Heck, Obama even sat on the desk from time to time!
Those stupid conservatives and their faux outrage over President Obama. Right, MSNBC?
Shortly after President Obama announced he would seek congressional approval for military intervention in Syria, the White House issued a photo of Obama speaking on the phone with House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) that morning. It wasn’t an especially remarkable Oval Office image, but the right really didn’t care for it.
Drudge put the shot on his homepage and soon after, Tea Partiers, among others, wanted to know, “Does seeing President Obama’s foot on the Oval Office desk make your blood boil?”
The right’s preoccupation with stuff like this has been odd for a long while.
You see, back in 2013 it was odd for the right to be preoccupied with stuff like this, but in 2017, NBC News considers it to be perfectly normal for the left to be preoccupied with stuff like this.
Photos of White House adviser Kellyanne Conway kneeling on an Oval Office couch with her shoes on have sparked an online debate about decorum in the executive mansion.Conway is seen perched on her knees on the couch with her feet behind her in photos taken Monday while President Donald Trump met with leaders of historically black colleges and universities.
Some Twitter users were quick to highlight the photos as evidence of a lack of respect for the office from Conway and the Trump administration. Other users have countered with numerous photos of former President Barack Obama resting his feet on the office's famed Resolute desk at various times during his eight years in office.
Conway has yet to weigh in on the criticism.
Now it's a legitimate debate to have. Why? Because Trump, apparently. When one of his advisers puts her shoes on a couch in the Oval Office, it's legitimately newsworthy to debate the appropriateness of this. However, when President Obama put his feet on the Resolute Desk, conservatives were silly and "odd" for daring to call that undignified.
Is it clear how media bias works yet? The exact same type of story covered in two different ways based on the political party of the subject.
Oh, and for Democrats who now think what Kellyanne Conway did was the most disrespectful thing to ever happen in the Oval Office, does the name Monica Lewinsky ring a bell?