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Charlie, you should be happy that all they did was boo you…last night’s debate was an embarrassment to the American electorate on so many levels. It doesn’t matter which candidate you are supporting, the determined non-substance of the debate is an affront. Will Bunch:
It’s hard to know where to begin with this, less than an hour after you signed off from your Democratic presidential debate here in my hometown of Philadelphia, a televised train wreck that my friend and colleague Greg Mitchell has already called, quite accurately, “a shameful night for the U.S. media.” It’s hard because — like many other Americans — I am still angry at what I just witnesses, so angry that it’s hard to even type accurately because my hands are shaking. Look, I know that “media criticism” — especially when it’s one journalist speaking to another — tends to be a genteel, colleagial thing, but there’s no genteel way to say this.
With your performance tonight — your focus on issues that were at best trivial wastes of valuable airtime and at worst restatements of right-wing falsehoods, punctuated by inane “issue” questions that in no way resembled the real world concerns of American voters — you disgraced my profession of journalism, and, by association, me and a lot of hard-working colleagues who do still try to ferret out the truth, rather than worry about who can give us the best deal on our capital gains taxes. But it’s even worse than that. By so badly botching arguably the most critical debate of such an important election, in a time of both war and economic misery, you disgraced the American voters, and in fact even disgraced democracy itself. Indeed, if I were a citizen of one of those nations where America is seeking to “export democracy,” and I had watched the debate, I probably would have said, “no thank you.” Because that was no way to promote democracy.
Be glad I didn’t quote Tom Shales; to call him appalled might just be an understatement.
And worse yet, what was George Stephanopoulos doing taking marching orders from Sean Hannity? Are you kidding me? After that performance, I’m ready to start a petition that all future debates be moderated by the League of Women Voters again. It’s clear the media is in collusion to distract us with non-issues.
No Trackbacks To ““Uh oh, the crowd is turning on me…”“
This was the worst debate ever! I surprised that they didn’t throw tomatoes at them, they should have. This was not a debate it was an attack on all sides with no substance. Shameful on both of them and the network of course this is the same network that blames 9-11 on President Clinton.
BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO! Last night was a right wing wet dream, way to go ABC mother foes
Disappointing.
i’d like to suggest that a blogswarm/whatever be done to appeal to the league of women voters to take control of the presidential debates, once the democratic candidate is determined.
this has to be a concerted effort to make these assholes aware of how profounding disgusted and insulted the electorate is at the behavior of these millionaire media puppets.
Two professional nitwits who owe the entire nation those two hours back. MTV could had done a better job.
uh, profoundly.
preview is your friend….
Charlie, you should be happy that all they did was boo you . . .
I’ll say.
Ironic that the Weather Underground was brought up out of nowhere.
If the Weathermen were still active, ABC’s facilities would consist smoking, empty lots.
Not to mention AEI, Heritage, Fox . . .
Any chance of insisting on these two clowns (George and Charlie) be asked why they conducted this at such a meaningless level. Do the negative statements about the debate even bother them? Will it force change in the media?
I expect the worst from the press - but the candidates should not respond by agreeing with almost all of the right-wing premises behind the questions!
Once again, the candidates demonstrate that they have no backbone.
Who put the Disney Corporation (ABC) in charge of this political debate? Disney is little better than Fox News, for example hundreds of ABC radio stations spew Rush Limbaugh.
Who would ever guess that they would attempt to make both Democrats look as bad as possible with crappy, irrelevant questions?
Future debates should be removed from corporate media’s hands. They are too important.
Yes to the League of Women’s voters. Let’s get serious America.
The conduct of that debate was an insult to American voters!
If they thought the Britney followers were going to be their audience, they were wrong.
Like I said it was an insult to all of us.
This was a debate? When was the definition of debate changed to “wank?” And what is this BS about the flipping Weather Underground? When the Weathermen were disintegrating, Obama would have been what…15 years old? Christ on a cracker.
Tonight’s Pajamas Media debate brought to you by Pay No Attention to the issues that concern you America. Just keep consuming! It’s your patriotic duty!
SHAME ON YOU FOX NEWS.
I’ll quote Tom Shales!
Just in case anyone was wondering.
If I wasn’t bitter before the debate, I sure as hell am bitter now.
“It’s clear the media is in collusion to distract us from non-issues”
That’s quite a statement…If true, how can you trust the media to accurately report other events like 9/11, for example? Hhhhhhhmmmmm ???
Left&Left @ 5:
Boxers or Briefs would have been a less shameful question
That was pathetic, the issues ie. are the dollar, inflation, the war and the constition (whats left) Shame on abc!
Maybe there is some good to come from this. The voters who don’t have Cable or Satellite tv now can see how bad the media is in our political process.
This “debate” was a blatantly partisan event run by two hacks that had all the class of carnival barkers. They spent 63 minutes focusing on tabloid trash issues such as Wright and bittergate and neo-Mc Carthyite trivia such as lapel pins. Small wonder Charlie commented that he was losing the audience, because he was. And good on the crowd to boo these incompetent fools and their circus freak show performance.
The ABC website currently has over 12,700 comments on this misadventure which are running about 1000 to 1 against them. The comments by the posters are basically the same–blasting Gibson and Steffy as incompetent, slanted, trash talking tabloid purveyors, etc. I hope ABC gets the message and realizes that public sentiment is overwhelmingly against them and they better get their money off the Neocon pony they bet on—NOW.
ABC and Fox, two peas in a pod.
To paraphrase Rene Zellwigers character in Jerry Maguire “you lost me at good evening”.
Babushka Blue @ 15:
Me too! I’m mad as hell! How dare the media treat us as though we are nothing more than National Enquirer readers. Jesus, George Steponopolus (fu*k it if the spelling wrong) should be fired today.
Those were Boourns…Boourns…
For what it’s worth, I submitted this to the ABC news contact us page this morning:
Your “debate” on 4/15/08 was a new low in TV broadcasting. Everyone involved in that sham should be sent back to junior college for a remedial course in broadcast journalism. The only positive thing I came away with after sitting through the first 45 minutes of that tripe was the confirmation that my decision 24 months ago to not watch ABC for informational news was spot on. You clowns should stick to doing stories about Britney Spears and Paris Hilton. Anything bigger is out of your league.
George Stuff-an-apple-up-your-ass.
He’s Hannity’s trained monkey.
Glibson is just a doltish tool.
-GSD
“It’s clear the media is in collusion to distract us from non-issues.”
Don’t you mean “distract us WITH non-issues”? Non-issues are used to distract us from the real issues.
Nicole: Yup, you’re right. That will teach me to blog at 2 in the morning.
When you allow Hannity to script your questions, you might as well throw in your journalism towel. What they did was let Fox news question the candidates by proxy.
Not having television and thus not having watched, I’d like to ask C&L, or some helpful commenter, to list as many of the sponsors of this as possible. They need to be added to my boycott list. Thank you. I encourage anyone reading to please consider canceling your cable/satellite subscription. It’s been 5 years for me and my stress level has gone down, and I think my I.Q. has gone up (kidding). If either candidate had real courage, they’d issue a statement blasting this charade, and spelling out how deeply the media has failed the people it is Constitutionally intended to serve. You think freedom of the press is in the First Amendment so that this can happen?
I know I posted this on an earlier article - but in case you missed that one, it’s worth repeating for the info:
Outraged over abc “news” Stephanopoulos and Gibson’s pitiful performance last night?
Call, write, email and FAX them:
Call the Switch Board: 212-456-7777 and Ask for the Voicemail of George Stephanopoulos Directly.
Also: dial 818-460-7477 press 2 then 6 then 639
ABC NEW YORK NEWSROOM:
(212) 456-5100 newsradio@abc.com Newsroom Fax Machine 212.456.5150
Peter Salinger: (THE MAN IN CHARGE OF ELECTION COVERAGE) Director, Special Events & Sports:
212.456.5105 peter.salinger@abc.com
Cristi Landes: Manager, Programming
212.456.5107 cristi.d.landes@abc.com
Wayne Fisk Director, Programming
212.456.5327 wayne.fisk@abc.com
Jeff Fitzgerald Executive Director, Operations
212.456.5554 jeffrey.t.fitzgerald@abc.com
Heidi Oringer Executive Director, Entertainment
212.456.5541 heidi.b.oringer@abc.com
Jon Newman News Coverage
212.456.5100 jonathan.m.newman@abc.com
Joyce Alcantara Assignment Manager
212.456.5106 joyce.a.alcantara@abc.com
Jim Kane Deputy D.C. Bureau Chief
212.222. 6604 james.f.kane@abc.com
Andrew Kalb Executive Director, Programming
05.567.2269 andrew.l.kalb@abc.com
Robert Garcia Executive Director, News & Sports
212.456.5103 robert.garcia@abc.com
And BTW - DNFTT
If Senator Obama is too frail to take some tough questions at a debate (which he finally got!), then he’s too frail to be President. Hillary is plenty tough and can do the job. We need someone strong to take over to undo all the things the current administration has screwed up and go forward with honor.
Hillary ‘08
The Old-guard Media has shown time and again that when it hosts a debate that debate will be as vapid or worse as the OM’s typical coverage of the campaign. The lesson from this is that in the future the candidate should avoid all debates—not merely those run by Faux News—moderated by members of the OM. While a debate “moderated” by Faux News would certainly have been worse—though does seem to stretch the imagination to imagine how—this debate was a travesty.
The OM regularly gets to ask questions of the candidates and typically wastes those opportunities to shed light on the campaigns. For that reason they have no further need to question the candidates. What we need are neutral but engaged moderation and an objective committee to select relevant questions to the candidates.
These debates fall squarely under the rule of fool me once, shame on you, fool me twice—or more—shame on me!
I did not see this debate last night, but the booing reminded me of a Leafs/Redwings game I saw a long time ago. John Brophy was coach of the Leafs. The game was so bad, the Toronto fans were throwing souvenirs on the ice; they had clearly had enough.
Sigh. If only that had led to real change.
.
.
Same with the debate.
Insignificance @ 31:
Do you really value “toughness” over values, conviction, and where someone stands on important issues?
They should have had brick-a-bats dropped on them
From low flying bats with the runs dumping overhead.
If either candidate complains they will be accused of whining. Personally it looked like three against one last night. The moderators were happy to bring up the accusations against Obama and Hillary was happy to sing along with the moderators tune.
Insignificance @ 31:
As in “Strong Leadership”
Recycled Bush Shit
gemHusseinpei @ 27:
No sweat. You’re doing a great job:)
Obama should have said, “Look, this is exactly why I refused to wear a flag pin. Because hacks like you use it to divert attention from the real world issues we need to be talking about. Oil is hitting a record high of $115 a barrel, we are actively engaged in a war on two fronts, tens of thousand of homeowners are losing their homes, and you’re asking me about Flag Pins? Really? Because if that is the level of questions that will be asked in this debate, I’m leaving right now. We all have better things to do.” And then walked out.
THAT would have clinched the nomination for him.
Insignificance @ 31:
From what I’ve seen, Obama held up pretty well considering the “ambush” and “sniper fire”. I would like to see Hillary under the same amount of pressure… oh wait, she has been, and she just chided that she’s being picked on because she’s a girl and she’s the front runner. I don’t recall Obama playing the victim card during all this.
He could have thrown something at Gibson or Stepho during the debate and he would have won more points (votes).
“Do you love your country as much as Reverend Wright”?
Obama should have responded (stretching arms wide):
Yup. This much.
Infantile Garbage.
Insignificance @ 31:
Do you really think that debate did Hillary any favors, either?
“As a people we are saturated with the myth of American superiority. As a revolutionary people, we must take our place in the human community resolutely opposed to all expressions of arrogance.”
From Prairie Fire - The political statement of the Weather Underground
Insignificance @ 31:
The questions weren’t “tough”, they were stale, repetitious and frankly juvenile. They had nothing to do with a presidential debate and more to do backstreet gossip.
Whenever I see an Old Glory Lapel Pin, I want to reach for a pistol.
kevinc @ 39:
Considering how shallow the media is, they would have accused him of not wanting to answer “TOUGH QUESTIONS.”
remember also to call your local ACE* affiliate and explain why you will no longer be shopping at their advertisers’ stores….
ACE* = arrogant condescending elitist, also known as “a Gibson”
That conversation about a little tin pin could sway our country to vote or not vote for someone for president, is one depressing fu*king thought.
Joe Scarborough and Chris Matthews talked this morning about the damn pins and their importance. Jesus, if all was right with world I could cut them a little slack, but all is not right with the world and a damned pin won’t fix that.
Weren’t they the news org to break the admin torture meetings? Wasn’t that a-hole GIBSON THE ONE WHO REPORTED on it?
And he doesn’t bring it up? LMBLOATEDAO!!!!!!