Obama, prosecutor critique media on Ferguson

President Obama and St. Louis County Prosecuting Attorney Robert McCulloch made very different speeches Monday night, but they converged on one point.

Media coverage.

Obama and McCulloch both offered critiques of the coverage of the deadly police shooting in Ferguson, Mo., and the protests that followed it.

"The most significant challenge encountered in this investigation has been the 24-hour news cycle and its insatiable appetite for something — for anything — to talk about, following closely behind with the non-stop rumors on social media," McCulloch said in an announcing that a grand jury had declined to indict police officer Darren Wilson for the shooting death of Michael Brown.

Minutes later in the White House press room, Obama urged calm and restraint among protesters, police — and the media.

Said the president:

"I think that it's going to be very important — and I think the media is going to have a responsibility as well — to make sure that we focus on Michael Brown's parents, and the clergy, and the community leaders, and the civil rights leaders, and the activists, and law enforcement officials who have been working very hard to try to find better solutions — long-term solutions, to this issue."

He added: "There is inevitably going to be some negative reaction, and it will make for good TV. But what we want to do is to make sure that we're also focusing on those who can offer the kind of real progress that we know is possible."