bd: Thank you, following experts, for making me feel like I didn't imagine how embarrassing ABC and their hosts were! I am in good company!!!
● Greg Mitchell: The Debate: A Shameful Night for the U.S. Media. In perhaps the most embarrassing performance by the media in a major presidential debate in years, ABC News hosts Charles Gibson and George Stephanopoulos focused mainly on trivial issues as Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama faced off in Philadelphia. They, and their network, should hang their collective heads in shame.
● The "Gotcha Debate" by ABC; excellent commentary & video analysis here, & live blogging! Click on this!
● Clinton emphatically says Obama can win White House
● ABC Hosts Heckled After Debate: "The Crowd Is Turning On Me"
(pipsqueak George Stephanopoulos below/right, with Bill Clinton, whom he worked for!)
Hannity asked George what kinds of questions they'll be asking at the debate tomorrow and they discussed a few things. When Hannity asked about the first question below about Ayers and whether George had plans to ask such a question, George replied, "Well, I'm taking notes now Sean." It did actually sound like he was pausing to take notes. And Hannity continued to feed him more:
1) Ask Obama about his relationship with Ayers and WeatherUnderground and Axelrod's comments, "They're friendly"
2) Ask Obama why he attended the Million Man March
(bd: WHERE is the video of Stephanopoulos on Hannity's show???)
● Hannity Spoonfed Left-Field Debate Question To Stephanopoulos; Stephanopoulos was in the Clinton administration and he was a "moderator"!!!
via videosift.com
● Democratic Underground called it ahead of time! They predicted George Stephanopoulos would bring up Ayers, after seeing Stephanopoulos on Sean Hannity show the night before!!!
● Keep turning up the HEAT on ABC... New Info
● Ayers question also predicted by DailyKOS: Semi-confirmed, Q on William Ayers WILL be asked! ABC contacted UIC for a photo of Ayers to be used tonight. Granted, this may be simply for the sake of having it on hand, but it seemed pretty clear that it IS going to be coming up in the debate.
● Why in the world George Stephanopoulos felt compelled to ask Barack Obama if Reverend Wright "loved America" after he had already been made to give another recitation of his repudiation of Wright's remarks is a question that simply defies the imagination. What sort of sensible answer can be given to that question? It would require astral projection to properly gauge another man's emotional state. And if you want to ask Hillary Clinton to account for the odd contortions she advanced on the matter of her Bosnia recollections, just sack up and ask. Don't hide behind the additional, pointless cruelty of a random voter's scoldings that Clinton lost their vote. What a wholly superfluous pile on!
And the flag lapel pin question came with this admonishment from Charles Gibson: "It keeps coming up, again and again." Well, no shit, Charlie! It keeps "coming up, again and again" because the media resolutely refuses to obtain the necessary courage to stop doing so.
● Salon.com: "This is the way it ends, not with a bang but a whimper. If Wednesday night’s fizzle in Philly was indeed the last debate of the Democratic primary season between Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton, it will be remembered for, well, not much of anything.
Broadcast to a prime-time network audience on ABC and devoid of a single policy question during its opening 50 minutes, the debate easily could have convinced the uninitiated that American politics has all the substance of a Beavis and Butt-Head marathon."
● Editor & Publisher: Clinton-Obama Debate: ABC Decides Top Issues Facing Americans Are Gaffes, Flag Pins and '60s Radicals
● Philly.com: An open letter to Charlie Gibson and George Stephanapoulos
Dear Charlie Gibson and George Stephanopoulos,
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.
● Washington Post: In Pa. Debate, The Clear Loser Is ABC
● NYTimes: Barack Obama was under attack on Wednesday night for his former friends: his fire-breathing former pastor and a neighbor who was once a member of the bomb-throwing radical ’60s and ’70s group the Weather Underground.
