If you missed the Democratic presidential debate on ABC last night, Editor & Publisher called it "perhaps
the most embarrassing performance by the media in a major presidential debate in years."1
Moderators George Stephanopoulos and Charlie Gibson spent the first 50 minutes obsessed with distractions that only political insiders care about-verbal gaffes, polling numbers, the stale Rev. Wright story, and the old-news Bosnia story. And, channeling Karl Rove, they directed a video question to Barack Obama asking if he loves the American flag or not. Seriously.
Enough is enough. The public needs the media to stop hurting the national dialogue in this important election year. : "Debate moderators abuse the public trust every time they ask trivial questions about gaffes and 'gotchas' that only political insiders care about. Enough with the distractions-ABC and other networks must focus on issues that affect people's daily lives."
The reaction to last night's debate has been very consistent:
"A stinker, an absolute car crash-thanks to the host network ABC...[It] ran the gamut from banal to inane. At the end of the debate members of the crowd appeared to be booing moderator Charlie Gibson."-The Guardian's Richard Adams2
"Halfway through the debate, not a single question on any policy issue had been asked."-OpenLeft.com's Chris Bowers3"For the first 52 minutes...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."-Washington Post TV critic Tom Shales.4
"We've revisited bitter. We've gone back to Bosnia. We've dragged Rev. Wright back up onto the podium.
We've mis-spent this debate by allowing Charlie Gibson and George Stephanopoulos to ask questions that skirt what in my mind is what we need to know
now."-Philadelphia Inquirer's Daniel Rubin5
Shame on ABC for letting voters down with last night's abysmal debate. Bad debates aren't just painful to watch-they actually hurt the country by
distracting voters and politicians away from big issues of the day.
