Speaking at the Fourth Global Opinion Leaders Summit in Japan over the weekend, former President Barack Obama lamented the wide array of news sources that exist now as opposed to the days when three television networks controlled the dispensing of news, opined that his administration had shut the Iranian nuclear program down, and bragged about his “calm” demeanor.
Obama complained about the rise of the internet and the plethora of news sites nowadays:
There’s a viciousness to politics and a polarization — very sharp lines that are drawn that make it more difficult to govern. And some of the reason for that is, I think because of information. It used to be that in the United States that there were three television stations, basically everybody watched the same thing, everybody got their news from the same sources, and so everybody had more or less a similar view of the world. But today because of, first cable television, and then now the internet, people have 500 channels to choose from. And they are able to find the news that fits their views instead of fitting their views to the news, so that they are very biased in terms of how they see things.
Obama somehow claimed that his administration, which confessed it had lied about selling the Iran nuclear deal, had succeeded in shutting the Iranian nuclear program down, saying;
We were able to negotiate with Iran, so that Iran would shut down its nuclear program. We did that through significant sanctions; Japan was a participant in it; Europe, China, India, and eventually Iran said to itself, “We will be better off if we’re able to trade, engage in commerce, sell our oil, import the parts that we need for our airlines,” and so there was a way of getting leverage on Iran. And ultimately I think Iran will be better off for not having developed nuclear weapons.
Obama bragged of his even temperament, boasting that his supposed calm demeanor came from him taking a “long view” of history.
Video below: