President Obama calls out media for coverage of Baltimore

With the backdrop of the Baltimore (MD) riots, President Barack Obama chided media coverage that he finds too narrow, focused on burning buildings and not the constructive protest that preceded the funeral of a 25-year-old Freddie Gray. President Obama used a joint press conference with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe to launch into a lengthy six-point monologue on American racial relations, clearly prepared for a Baltimore question during a session that largely focused on a controversial and tentative Asian trade agreement. “We can’t just leave this to the police,” said President Obama, while arguing that once again one has seen American reluctance to deal with issues that “are not new.” “Some communities have to do some soul searching,” he said in the Rose Garden gathering.

“This is now new. It’s been going on for decades,” citing entrenched poverty and communities “stripped of opportunity.” “If we really wanted to solve the problem, we could,” he said. "The violence that happened yesterday distracted from the fact you’d seen multiple days of peaceful protest…that were constructive. And, frankly, they didn’t get much attention.” “The thousands of demonstrators who did it the right way have been lost in the discussion. The overwhelmingly majority in Baltimore have handled things appropriately.”