Thanks CNN
Wow! Thank goodness we have crack journalists on top of this. After reporting that Obama refused to "fist bump" with a boy while on a school tour, CNN has looked deeper and found:
It appears Tuesday's pool report — widely reported by several media outlets, including CNN — that Obama refused to bump fists with a child in Ohio was incorrect.
They even have the video which proves that Obama was actually refusing to sign the boy's hand (with a permanent marker) instead. And rest assured, they also have video of Obama signing many, many pictures and pieces of paper for the kids so there can be no doubt that there was some sort of attempted slight of any of the kids (or that he thinks he is "too good" to sign autographs which is where the story was likely to be spun next).
After all, if he had indeed been forsaking his "signature" fist bump, that might have been a sign of...of....well, shoot. I don't know, but I am sure that someone in the media could have made it into something.
I am glad to see that I am not missing much since I gave up on most tv news media (especially the 24 hour variety). I get so tired of pundits going over every single unimportant thing in hopes of coming up with the next big "story" that really is about nothing. Geesh. Besides, I thought that the "fist bump" thing was actually started by Howie Mendal...since he has issues with germs...
OK. I just googled "Howie Mandel fist bump" and found this Time article, A Brief History of the Fist Bump, from back in June (after Michelle and Barrack <gasp> publicly fist bumped):
Some claim the act of knuckle-bumping began in the 1970s with NBA players like Baltimore Bullets guard Fred Carter. Others claim the fist bump's national debut occurred off the court, citing the Wonder Twins, minor characters in the 1970s Hanna-Barbera superhero cartoon The Superfriends, who famously touched knuckles and cried "Wonder Twin powers, activate!' before morphing into animals or ice sculptures. One might also credit germaphobics for the fist bump's popularity. Deal or No Deal host Howie Mandel reportedly adopted the gesture as a friendly way to avoid his contestants' germs.
I give up.
Interestingly enough, Dana over at Principled Discovery has an interesting article about how tabloids are going out of business because mainstream news media has “out-tabloided” the tabloids.
