Media needs to acknowledge Michelle Obama's achievements

Michelle Obama is not just the first lady; nor is she just a fashion icon. She is a highly intelligent woman with many accomplishments of her own. Michelle Obama skipped the second grade and was taking accelerated classes by the sixth grade. She attended a high school specifically for gifted students, Whitney M. Young Magnet High School in Chicago and was the salutatorian of the Class of 1981. She graduated Cum Laude from Princeton University and earned a Juris Doctor Degree from Harvard University Law School.

She mentored Barack Obama at the Sidley Austin Law Firm where she first worked after graduating from Harvard. Michelle Obama's credentials go on and on. Clearly she is a well-educated woman with a great deal of academic intellect.

So why then are there articles like this one from CNN: "Michelle Obama's urban chic heads to D.C." or "Michelle Obama in J. Crew" showing customers how to dress like the first lady. Spiegel even advertises: "Spiegel has all of the stylish, modern looks for the First Lady for less!"

Countless interviews with Michelle Obama refer to fashion: what she wears, where she buys her clothing, how nice she looks. Why is the news media insulting her intelligence with questions like these?

There is a real opportunity to get a different perspective on current issues and events and we are all blowing it by way of pretty shoes. Barack Obama is clearly very educated as well, but Michelle has a different perspective than he does.

America has the opportunity to speak to the first black first lady about important issues of consequence but they cannot seem to stop asking her where she purchased her shoes. We stand to gain a lot from her educated insight.

Eleanor Roosevelt made many important accomplishments when she was first lady and no one asked her fashion advice-instead she was known for being homely. Hillary Clinton was ridiculed for her lack of fashion sense, but her intellect was not overlooked.

Our media is failing miserably to report what should matter. The press not only has the responsibility to report on what the people want to know about, but what they should know.

The "people" should know that Michelle Obama is not a model; she is a very educated woman who could be contributing to a solution to the problems of the United States and even the world. Instead we are looking to her to help us fill our closets with modern "urban chic" clothing.

I am disgusted that this is what the American media has come to-all fluff and no substance. Instead of looking to reporting on current, worldly events, we are looking to see the labels of Michelle Obama's dresses.

It is OK to watch silly television, or check out of the real world on occasion-everyone needs to do it. I am not suggesting hard news all the time, but it has been months since Obama came into the public eye, and it has been months of dresses, shoes, and jewelry.

I am just asking for it to come to an end so we can focus on what is important and acknowledge all that she has to offer the United States.

I am asking that ABC, CNN, and the BBC leave the fashion to the fashion magazines and use their public space as an arena to discuss vital issues.