PSY is not “another rapper”: Why Washington journalists should leave the pop culture stuff alone

In what might be an all-time low for Washington political journalism in terms of understanding cultural context, CBS News lumps PSY (he of “Gangnam Style”) in with “rappers” who have caused controversy at the White House, despite a) The situation touching upon clear cultural differences between the U.S. and South Korea during a particularly poor time for relations between the two countries and b) PSY being nothing like Kanye West, who Obama once jokingly called a “jackass.” This article also refers to a controversy involving Cee-Lo Green, who raps but is far better known to the public as a risk-taking R&B artist, and a song (“Fuck You”) in which he doesn’t actually rap. Lumping PSY, who apologized for the incident and noted the incident was a product of its time, into the same boat as some stupid made-up incident with the rapper Common, is totally a misrepresentation of the situation — and an attempt to taint the president with bad press over something that happened at a time when Obama wasn’t even a senator. Leave the pop culture to Tumblr, guys.