The Shame Of ABC
Posted by Phoenix Woman on April 17, 2008
Whatever that thing was on ABC last night, it wasn’t a debate. It was a travesty. Charles Gibson couldn’t ask about Bush’s approving torture, but he, a multimillionaire many times over, found time to whine about the estate tax. And don’t even get me started on Sean Hannity’s feeding gotcha questions to George Stephanopoulos. No wonder the audience was booing these alleged moderators — and cheered whenever Obama tried to steer the questioning to matters of substance. If I’d been there, I’d have been throwing my shoes at the alleged moderators.
And the reviews are in:
Tom Shales, Washington Post: Gibson and Stephanopoulos “turned in shoddy, despicable performances. For the first 52 minutes of the two-hour, commercial-crammed show, Gibson and Stephanopoulos dwelled entirely on specious and gossipy trivia that already has been hashed and rehashed, in the hope of getting the candidates to claw at one another over disputes that are no longer news. Some were barely news to begin with.”
Greg Mitchell, Editor & Publisher: “In perhaps the most embarrassing performance by the media in a major presidential debate this year, ABC News hosts Charles Gibson and George Stephanopolous focused mainly on trivial issues as Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama faced off in Philadelphia.”
Josh Marshall: “Looking around other sites, I guess I’m not the only one that thought this debate was unmitigated travesty. Maybe the embargo on debate rebroadcast was a pro-human rights stand.”
Niall Stanage, The Guardian:
What is it about Philadelphia? The city last month hosted one of the most impressive moments of the presidential campaign to date: Barack Obama’s forthright speech on race. But last night, the very same venue – the National Constitution Centre – witnessed one of the worst events: the dismal ABC News debate between the Democratic candidates.
The contrast could hardly have been starker. Obama’s March 18 speech was sophisticated, honest and, above all, respectful of the intelligence of his audience. Last night’s debate – or, more specifically, the performance of its moderators, Charles Gibson and George Stephanopoulos – was by turns superficial and disingenuous.
Persons interested in telling ABC what they think can go here for contact information.
[UPDATE: Read the transcript of last night's travesty and compare it to the questions asked at YearlyKos last year. The Kossacks put the "journalists" to shame.]
This entry was posted on April 17, 2008 at 7:01 am and is filed under 2008, Barack Obama, GOP/Media Complex, Hillary Clinton, Media machine, WTF?, media, mediawhores, narcissism, phony scandals, wrong way to go about it. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
kip said
I didn’t think it was that bad. The candidates needed to get out front on those trivial matters, because that’s all the media has been focusing on. Also, by ripping ABC, like so many of us on the Left are doing, bloggers on the Right think it was worse than it really was. They have enough ammunition already!
Phoenix Woman said
The right wing has been driving this whole process. Sean Hannity gave Stephanopoulos the bogus Ayers question!
That’s why it was so heartening to hear the crowd cheer when the candidates tried to steer things back to reality — and boo Gibson and Stephanopoulos for their horrific hackwork.
MEC said
It was a travesty to have former Clinton staffer George Stephanopoulos as a debate moderator, since it’s long been obvious that he holds a grudge against the Clintons and will not be objective.
Phoenix Woman said
Exactly. He’s still pissed that he got dumped for David Gergen.
Michael said
It was nice that the audience booed the moderators at the end.