AMERICAblog: Real issues get one line from the Washington Post, while Post's TV critic blasts ABC hosts "shoddy, despicable performances."
Savage8862
· 1 year ago
I wonder why ABC News has become the trash news network - even more insane than Fox News at time. This morning on Good Morning America Chris Cuomo thought it important that he show what snack foods and drinks are important to voters regarding McCain, Clinton, and Obama. They had a discussion on the importance of Fig Newton cookies for Hillary Clinton supporters and Sunchips for Obama voters. Can I find out how each of those candidates feel about a Unitary executive branch or is that too much to ask?
ABC News = Fox News
kevinbgoode
· 1 year ago
I saw that too, Savage. . .and people need to respond to such trash. The network still has not addressed any of the uproar from last night.
Savage8862
· 1 year ago
I was one of those 11, 0000 people that contacted ABC to complain about last night's debate. Our news media have done more to harm the political process than any other institution - outside of the executive branch.
Rob Mule
· 1 year ago
So if Team Hillary is still, this morning, smearing Obama as "unelectable" doesn't that suggest Hillary's "yes, yes, yes" confirmation of Obama's electability last evening was another lie???
bumpkis
· 1 year ago
If those two moderators had a shred of integrity, they would both RESIGN, and reveal the names of those who supplied and-or approved the questions...not holding my breath here...
Indigo
· 1 year ago
Charlie Gibson? I've never understood how he keeps his job. George Stephanopoulos? I've never understood what that degree in theology was supposed to be about. I'm sorry but neither one of them gives good Disney. I speak as an Orlando, Florida resident . . . Disney is our business and they ain't it.
maggiePA08
· 1 year ago
And what was up with that crappy voiceover reading from the amendments before each segment? Every time I heard it, I thought it was an opening to a SNL skit or a Colbert Report.
grandma
· 1 year ago
from Philidephia Daily News:
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.
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......
I think one thing we need to consider doing (in a practical way) is to reconstruct the roots of every question asked by Georgie and Charlie last night. I have a feeling that we will have lots of evidence of inherent bias if we get to the root of every question. Yes, we know they were right-wing talking points framing the issues - we need to find out where and how ABC chose "the video clips, the camera focus, where the questions came from. . .and I suspect the answers won't be pretty for the Disney company. We already know that some of the Rev. Wright crap came from ABC News' own hype of that scandal and their own claimed "investigation" - they fed that fire for weeks. We also know they've done their best to fuel the "bitter" fire as well. As for the "flag lapel" video clip, it's amazingly coincidental that ABC managed to get a video clip of the SAME woman who was quoted in a New York Times story on April 3 (and again on the 6th, I think) who explained she could not vote for Obama because he didn't wear a flag lapel pin. They didn't find some other Democrat with the same kind of question. They found the very same woman already quoted in a NYT article, somehow got a video clip of her asking such an important question, and represented it as an important thing to address, even though we ALL know the flag lapel pin crap came from the wingnuts:
Latrobe, Pa. —- Ask who she might vote for in the upcoming presidential primary election and Nash McCabe, 52, seems almost relieved to be able to unpack the dossier she's been collecting in her head.
It is not about whom she likes, but more a bill of particulars about why she cannot vote for Sen. Barack Obama.
"How can I vote for a president who won't wear a flag pin?" McCabe, a recently unemployed clerk typist, said in a booth at the Valley Dairy luncheonette in this quiet, tiny city in western Pennsylvania.
Obama has said patriotism is about ideas, not flag pins.
"I watch him on TV," McCabe said. "I keep looking for that lapel pin." ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Speaking of "real issues" I've already heard several pundits and punditissimas claim the William Ayers irrelevancy as "an issue" voter's will use to decide. Media fails to highlight its primacy with the introduction of this alleged "issue". Fingers can't be in everything while hands remain clean, can they???
grandma
· 1 year ago
You might as well pull any half-intelligent person off the street, and they would unquestionably have more difficult and significant questions for the two candidates. It was not merely a momentarily bad performance, by ABC, it was a debate explicitly designed to be what it was, which is far more telling.
How many black people on ABC News aside from the breast cancer chick who coanchors with 1963's America's Junior Miss???
grandma
· 1 year ago
Another Clinton lie???
Clinton Campaign Denies "Screw 'Em" Comments
Clinton campaign officials deny the reports of three earwitnesses that Sen. Hillary Clinton uttered the words "screw 'em" during an internal discussion about how and whether to reach out to white working class voters in 1995
Americans love a fair fight/debate, but that's not what occurred last night in Philly. My hunch: major backlash, not only because Clinton, her former lackey and Charlie Giblet ganged up on Obama, but also because almost none of the issues voters are concerned about during this extremely important election were discussed during a two-hour debate. No wonder voters are "bitter"!
Besides, all the polls show Obama won despite the barrage of neocon smears. Rocky Obama is a born leader--the Clintons born misleaders.
grandma
· 1 year ago
The Clinton campaign maintains that people who recall Hillary Clinton making a pointedly derisive remark about Southern voters many years ago are not remembering it right.
Majority of Americans do NOT trust Hillary Clinton...and believe her to be dishonest.
Enuff said.
medium lebowski
· 1 year ago
The United States is a pretty important place, and many of our fellow citizens rely on this kind of media personality for information. These aren't journalists; these are courtiers.
grandma
· 1 year ago
Not everyone was upset about the debate. The New York Times’ David Brooks writes, “I understand the complaints, but I thought the questions were excellent.” So does Hannity.
grandma's link about hannity feeding stephanopoulos a debate question is big.
the wingers are very worried about Obama.
Dave of the Jungle
· 1 year ago
Despicable is right.
grandma
· 1 year ago
Obama talks to the American people as if they are adults.....it's taking time but the people are coming around.
I can't wait til Obama wins in November !!!!
Smarmy
· 1 year ago
Hillary needs to step down for the GOOD of the country and democracy and the democratic party. Why has she been so indulged? Who really thinks what she has to say about anything is important? She's wasting America's time and resources BECAUSE WE ALLOW HER TO DO SO. Enough with Hillary already. Do the math, she can't win.
sittenpretty
· 1 year ago
this is cynisism at its worst..and the question remains,WHY DID THEY KILL THE GOOSE THAT LAYS THE GOLDEN EGG? (the American consumer) i can NOT figure that one out!
jeffg166
· 1 year ago
I live in Philadelphia. I've pretty much successfully avoid all the commercials and debates. It's over on next Tuesday. Praise the lord.
Dave of the Jungle
· 1 year ago
Obama will make Insane McCain look like a senile old dullard.
Quite appropriately.
sittenpretty
· 1 year ago
Brooks = another shallow journalist --------- NO forgive me.....HE IS PAID 1,500,000.00$ PER YEAR to LIE to you all...wake up
sittenpretty
· 1 year ago
HILLARY was NOT ,lying ,when she talked about a VAST rightwing cospiracy...Newspaper columnists,rushbos,Hannitys,haggerts,republican politicians,all broadcast media....TOO BAD she joined it,sigh!
Dave of the Jungle
· 1 year ago
I agree with sittenpretty. Brooks is on message, not shallow.
He's an op/ed writer.
aquarius2
· 1 year ago
Politico's Roger Simon has a rather unique perspective of last night's debate. He is asserting that Obama doesn't like the heat in the kitchen, a Clinton argument. Simon doesn't question the validity of wasting 2 hours on trivial and old news questions, no siree, he blames Obama for complaining. I really hate Politico, especially Roger Simon. I read it to see what the Republican spin is going to be and it never disappoints me as to how they spin arguments. You can see just how the Republicans are going to turn November into an absolute hate fest.
Politico's Roger Simon has a rather unique perspective of last night's debate. He is asserting that Obama doesn't like the heat in the kitchen, a Clinton argument. Simon doesn't question the validity of wasting 2 hours on trivial and old news questions, no siree, he blames Obama for complaining. I really hate Politico, especially Roger Simon. I read it to see what the Republican spin is going to be and it never disappoints me as to how they spin arguments. You can see just how the Republicans are going to turn November into an absolute hate fest. ---------------------------- there is ENDLESS money to give these cretins to write this tripe,thanks to CHIMPS TAX CUTS....they will continue,to spin US ALL till they can no longer collect EASY money for doing it!
gonzalez
· 1 year ago
That was not a debate. It was a personality contest. These two idiots got to resign their posts and let someone else, handle the debates. What assholes. It took 55 minytes to get to the issue of Iraq. 55 MINUTES!
sittenpretty
· 1 year ago
randma 15 minutes ago
grandma's link about hannity feeding stephanopoulos a debate question is big.
the wingers are very worried about Obama. -------------------------- CHARLIE THE MULIMILLIONAIRE as much as said so...............are you gonna take away my 15% CAPITAL GAINS TAX wahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh,please dont wahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh
kevinbgoode
· 1 year ago
Ah...now, "The View" is trying desperately to put a happy face on the debate fiasco. The first thing out of Barbara's mouth, seconded by right-wing spokesmodel Elizabeth Hasselbeck was how this was the "toughest" debate in which so many "tough" questions were asked - and what a wonderful job Charlie and George did. . . they just forgot to add the words "for the Republican Party."
No surprise, of course. The network is not going to address the complaints on any level - they are proceeding to pretend there aren't any about the performance last night. Not a single mention of even other media criticism.
This, to me, is information which must be documented as part of the evidence necessary to challenge ABC's right to broadcast over the public's airwaves.
shanobama
· 1 year ago
Yea, and they forgot the Jell-o wrestling pit, too. I was bummed.
FunMe
· 1 year ago
ABC = the new Saturday Night Live station.
And ABC is not even funny - the joke is on them!
Mikki --SE Pennsylvania
· 1 year ago
Well, if ABC was hoping to do some sort of restoration work on their very tarnished reputation in the real news world, letting Gibson and Stephanopoulos loose didn't hit the mark. In fact these two bumbling C-teamers were so far off the mark that it wasn't even funny With all the substantiove issues that need to be covered these two boobs spent the majority of the airtime trying to reprocess gossip garbage. No one should ever confuse either of these prejudiced and partial losers as anything close to genuine newsmen or journalists or even pundits. As for ABC, it becomes crystal clear why this network is looking at subbing newsgathering to CNN, a once very good network with an increasing problem of lackluster and incompetent staff. What also makes more sense is the snide remark I heard that perhaps the combined efforts should be called CNN-BS. IF ABC was still worth its salt, these two jackasses would be cleaning out their desks this morning and wondering where they are going to be able to get jobs in the news world. Maybe their buiddies at Fauxnews, the republicon press agency will hire them to join the other psycotic losers already aboard, but then that wouldn't be the same as a real news agency. Their performance was nothing short of disgusting and clearly biased.
jr
· 1 year ago
"that's how you run a debate"-Roger Ailes from Fox watching Gibson and George do McCain's bidding
redjellydonut
· 1 year ago
David Brooks apparently wasn't the only one to give last night's debate a thumbs-up. Hanna Rosin and Emily Bazelon thought it was great, too. They were on NPR this morning kvetching about the fact that neither Obama nor Clinton answered Gibson's and Stephanopoulos' questions adequately. They actually believe that lapel pins and nutty pastors are the salient issues confronting the American voter. These are not folks who have any insights into the challenges and ideals of working class folks, and Rosin's contempt for Obama is unmistakable.
All Comments
ABC News = Fox News
George Stephanopoulos? I've never understood what that degree in theology was supposed to be about.
I'm sorry but neither one of them gives good Disney. I speak as an Orlando, Florida resident . . . Disney is our business and they ain't it.
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.
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......
http://www.philly.com/philly/blogs/attytood/An_...
We already know that some of the Rev. Wright crap came from ABC News' own hype of that scandal and their own claimed "investigation" - they fed that fire for weeks. We also know they've done their best to fuel the "bitter" fire as well.
As for the "flag lapel" video clip, it's amazingly coincidental that ABC managed to get a video clip of the SAME woman who was quoted in a New York Times story on April 3 (and again on the 6th, I think) who explained she could not vote for Obama because he didn't wear a flag lapel pin. They didn't find some other Democrat with the same kind of question. They found the very same woman already quoted in a NYT article, somehow got a video clip of her asking such an important question, and represented it as an important thing to address, even though we ALL know the flag lapel pin crap came from the wingnuts:
http://nytimesagency.com/preview/NTA2008040374077
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Latrobe, Pa. —- Ask who she might vote for in the upcoming presidential primary election and Nash McCabe, 52, seems almost relieved to be able to unpack the dossier she's been collecting in her head.
It is not about whom she likes, but more a bill of particulars about why she cannot vote for Sen. Barack Obama.
"How can I vote for a president who won't wear a flag pin?" McCabe, a recently unemployed clerk typist, said in a booth at the Valley Dairy luncheonette in this quiet, tiny city in western Pennsylvania.
Obama has said patriotism is about ideas, not flag pins.
"I watch him on TV," McCabe said. "I keep looking for that lapel pin."
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
http://www.ajc.com/metro/content/printedition/2...
Fingers can't be in everything while hands remain clean, can they???
http://dailykos.com/storyonly/2008/4/17/4931/36...
Clinton Campaign Denies "Screw 'Em" Comments
Clinton campaign officials deny the reports of three earwitnesses that Sen. Hillary Clinton uttered the words "screw 'em" during an internal discussion about how and whether to reach out to white working class voters in 1995
http://marcambinder.theatlantic.com/archives/20...
Besides, all the polls show Obama won despite the barrage of neocon smears. Rocky Obama is a born leader--the Clintons born misleaders.
http://www.swamppolitics.com/news/politics/blog...
Enuff said.
So does Hannity.
http://thinkprogress.org/2008/04/17/steph-hanni...
Brooks = another shallow journalist
grandma's link about hannity feeding stephanopoulos a debate question is big.
the wingers are very worried about Obama.
I can't wait til Obama wins in November !!!!
Quite appropriately.
---------
NO forgive me.....HE IS PAID 1,500,000.00$ PER YEAR to LIE to you all...wake up
He's an op/ed writer.
http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0408/9676....
----------------------------
there is ENDLESS money to give these cretins to write this tripe,thanks to CHIMPS TAX CUTS....they will continue,to spin US ALL till they can no longer collect EASY money for doing it!
grandma's link about hannity feeding stephanopoulos a debate question is big.
the wingers are very worried about Obama.
--------------------------
CHARLIE THE MULIMILLIONAIRE as much as said so...............are you gonna take away my 15% CAPITAL GAINS TAX
wahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh,please dont wahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh
No surprise, of course. The network is not going to address the complaints on any level - they are proceeding to pretend there aren't any about the performance last night. Not a single mention of even other media criticism.
This, to me, is information which must be documented as part of the evidence necessary to challenge ABC's right to broadcast over the public's airwaves.
And ABC is not even funny - the joke is on them!