In a new profile for The New Yorker, former President Barack Obama digs into the “difficult” media environment that the world faces today, making it clear that he does not want to be a frequent commentator on hot-button issues, while revealing that he spends less time than people might think on projects at Higher Ground Productions, his film and TV studio.
The New Yorker estimates that the Obamas’ net worth “certainly reaches nine figures” thanks to their deals with Netflix, Spotify, Audible, as well as their book sales and speeches.
Obama told The New Yorker’s Peter Slevin that if he responded to every outrageous thing that President Trump says or does, it would dilute the influence and impact that he has as a former President.
“For me to function like Jon Stewart, even once a week, just going off, just ripping what was happening — which, by the way, I’m glad Jon’s doing it — then I’m not a political leader, I’m a commentator,” Obama told Slevin. “The media environment is so difficult that people don’t even know all the stuff I am doing, right?” he said. “And, I think, when they do see me, then the sense is Well, why isn’t he doing that every day instead of just during a midterm election, or during a referendum campaign around gerrymandering, or what have you?”
Instead, Obama has made a strategic choice to pick and choose when and where he speaks, a move that his longtime advisor David Plouffe says is meant to be effective in today’s media environment.
“People who are going to be decisive in elections going forward do not seek out information about politics — they encounter it,” said Plouffe. “Obama will talk about things, and there will be video clips that are interesting to people, because it’s not like a droning on in a political speech.”
The former president also revealed that he only spends about 10 percent of his time on Higher Ground Productions, which has a deal with Netflix (for now), in some cases taking the time to send notes to the director or creative team. It may be less time than some in Hollywood think, where the cadence of projects is a corollary to relevance.
“He’s forceful and direct but always calm,” Working director Caroline Suh said. “He was very respectful of the fact that this is what we all do for a living.”
And Obama responded to a meme shared by President Trump earlier this year that depicted the former president and his wife as apes by brushing it off.
“I don’t take it personally,” Obama said. “I mean, I’m always offended when my wife and kids get dragged into things, because they didn’t choose this. . . . That’s a line that even people whose politics I deeply reject, I would expect them to care about. I would never talk about somebody’s family in that way.”
“I mean, I’m a fair target in the sense of, yeah, you can feel free to pick on me, because I’m your own size,” he added.
