A couple of days ago I was watching an interview with President Obama, and he had the nerve to swat a fly right there on national television. Now I like flies just as much as the next person....

Wait.....

I actually do like flies. They serve a useful purpose in the overall scheme of things. Like my sophomore roommate at Texas A&M University said, "All God's creatures have a right to live."

Well, maybe not....  Even for me.

However, I was aghast when I started reading reports about People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals weighing in on our cruel President. The last time I checked, a fly was not an animal. As the PETA v. United States President ballooned out of control, I thought I might need to dig beneath the soundbites to see if there was something missing from all these stories. Here is what I found:

First, President Obama did, indeed, swat a fly on national television.

Second, I was able to find several posts on the Internet about this atrocious act by the President of the United States of America. Apparently TMZ went asking PETA for a statement. Ah, yes, TMZ. Enough said, as far as I was concerned.

The original statement that PETA put out, in its entirety is below. How amazing that someone -- TMZ, Fox News, Michael Steele, etc. -- could get "PETA outraged" out of this:

"Well, who is perfect? Certainly, President Obama has been helpful in his opposition to factory farming, which involves the mutilation and slaughter-while fully conscious-of 10 billion chickens and other farmed animals every year and is something that America can truly be ashamed of. He condemned the Canadian seal slaughter, which is the largest massacre of marine mammals in the world. His wife won't wear fur, which means that she doesn't support allowing animals to die slowly in traps or to live abysmal lives and suffer horrific deaths on fur factory farms for a coat. His administration supports openness with regard to how government money is spent, which will save millions of animals from painful experiments every year. He also had a perfect voting record in behalf of animals while he was in the Senate and spoke out publicly in support of animal protection on multiple occasions during his presidential campaign. Swatting a fly on TV indicates that he's not the Buddha, that's all."

Imagine if PETA had refused comment to TMZ. Maybe the soundbites might have been headlined something like, "PETA refuses to condemn fly murder."

As with all things television and other soundbite-heavy media, getting one's hands dirty by digging beyond them is often good for the soul.

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