NEWS: CNN Turns A Presidential Debate Into A Fucking Joke

POLITICS: CNN Turns A Presidential Debate Into A Fucking Joke

As embarrassing as it is to be an American these days, with our pathetic political representation, disgraceful media and voter apathy, Wednesday night was an incredibly shameful display by CNN. The Republican YouTube debate started out like an episode of "America’s Funniest Videos" and didn’t get much better.

You might think it would be a good idea for presidential candidates to answer questions from the people who will be voting. The questions should be reflective of the issues that actually concern Americans and could potentially catch candidates more off guard than the typical reporter questions. Not when CNN picks them. In substance, they are the same type of typical reporter questions, but instead they are asked in incredibly undignified and retarded ways.

The ridiculousness kicked off with a montage of YouTube videos from the last debate: We saw an idiotic snowman, an alien, a graphic Richard Nixon ghost, little kids, a speaking Abe Lincoln photo, along with a speaking Ben Franklin bill, stuffed animals and real dogs that talk. And that was what we weren’t going to see! Ha ha ha. Wow, great start. Republicans are trying to figure out which candidate to pick and CNN is wasting time showing how they were complete assholes during the Democratic debate.

Then CNN played a video of some idiot from Washington who had written a song about the debate and tossed it up on YouTube. It was a shocking new low for a presidential debate. The song was high school-level, variety show bullshit and embarrassing to every man, woman and Ron Paul in that auditorium. But we got to watch the candidates awkwardly watch the idiot strum his guitar and sing for three minutes. You can tell a debate is not starting well when the host says.

Now, close your eyes and picture Walter Cronkite saying that. How'd that go? Not so good, huh?

Anderson Cooper then got things off and running. We got immediately into one of the issues Americans care least about. Immigration! The two first questions can easily be summed up:

The third immigration question was from a small business owner and quite smart. But, hey, that’s three immigration questions! More than any other topic, I guess because it’s fifth on the list of important issues. Awesome!

26% - The war in Iraq
16% - Health care
14% - Job creation and economic growth
13% - Terrorism
11% - Illegal immigration
8% - The environment and global warming
6% - Energy and the cost of gas
3% - Social issues such as abortion and gay marriage
1% - Other (vol.)

Sadly, only McCain and Huckabee came across as slightly human in their answers on immigration. The rest were idiots. Oh, and there were only two questions about Iraq. No questions about health care. No questions about job growth, the environment, energy, on and on.

Finally, we moved on to…the NAFTA Superhighway. You know, the thing that does not exist. Why not just ask a question about what the candidates would do if Mothra was attacked the US? The irresponsibility of CNN to allow shit like this on the air is astounding. The question was directed at Ron Paul who, of course, pretended like the NAFTA Superhighway is real. Wouldn’t want to freak out your psycho followers, would you Paul?

Then we had a couple of decent questions from two women. Nicely done. So, why not follow it up with a question from a cartoon Uncle Sam about eliminating income tax? Anyone notice these questions are aimed at adults running for the fucking White House? Why not a question about Iraq from Snuffleupagus? Or maybe a zucchini with lips could ask about Social Security?

Then came a guy eating corn and asking about farm subsidies, a gun control question from a guy irresponsibly handing firearms, some fucking idiot asking what guns the candidates owned, a douche bag asking them if they believe every word of The Bible, another asshat pretending he was two different people, a question from a cartoon Dick Cheney who was threatening the candidates with a gun and an asshole asking a question about his precious Confederate flag. Overall, it was an embarrassing display.

There were some interesting and effective questions asked, but they were few and far between. CNN attempted to make the debate “entertaining” and ended up creating an arena of shame.

The crowd itself was disturbing. The cheering of torture, while a man stands onstage who was actually the victim of torture, is beyond disgusting. Not all joined in the Roman like blood lust, but it was well over half. The crowd was obviously pretty much all white. When they showed a wide shot of the entire theater, I could only see one black man. But I’d like to thank CNN for showing close ups of two different black men. Must have been hard to find them with all those white faces. Zero in on that oddity. Brava.

Mike Huckabee was the clear winner. He was well spoken, funny and focused. Mitt Romney stumbled quite a bit, particularly on The Bible question. Rudy Guiliani was on the defensive a lot and Fred Thompson was just pathetic. Not so easy without a script, eh, gramps? Ron Paul just seemed outclassed and was definitely the most booed candidate on the stage. But the strangest man to watch on that stage was John McCain. On one hand he seemed old and a bit tired, but then it became apparent that he didn’t know what the fuck had happened to his party. Here was a man who used to be completely conservative but is now considered a moderate. He often seemed disgusted with the black and white answers of his fellow candidates and the total lack of substance in their answers. He was visibly angry at Mitt Romney’s pro-torture response to one question. It made me remember why I liked him back in the day. Sad.

It's worse than sad... American politics turned into theater of the absurd. It isn't even entertainment it's just pathetic...

Geez. And people complained about 'The Worm' we had downunder. I'm glad it gauged public opinion as opposed to having a whole bunch of politically inept people as questions about "what guns the candidates owned", urgh! Donkey vote.

Why are you doing this??

I couldn't handle more than about ten minutes of the program. I'm saddened that the process has been turned into product that makes me this opposed to tuning in.

But what about the issues, man? The issues!!!

*whew*

Thank god, someone's on top of things! Priorities. It's all about priorities.

I don't know, man the part about Jesus was pretty good, even Giuliani was laughing and clapping at that one, and according to CNN's atermath show, it got great response from the audience as well.

It was pretty rad, watching what's his face, first guy who answered questions ramble on about how children who were born in the U.S. from illegal aliens have no right to get an edutcation because they're ultimately the by-product of an unlawful union on sacred soil. At some point I almost felt like gettin' on my car and drive all the way up there to tell Ron Paul about the NAFTA freeway and how great it was, even tell him stories about my 49 countrymen I packed inside my car to smuggle them into american territory along with weapons and drugs, and how easy it was to get them past the border, then I remembered such a thing doesn't exist, and my illusions for a North American Union blew away.

Then I went for groceries.

If McCain would quit pretending to the "Damn the torpedoes! Full speed ahead!" mentality and actually live it...well, he wouldn't win, but I'd damn well salute his integrity.

Idiocracy?
The next Presidential debate is going to be American Idol style, with that British guy yelling at them.

I always think it's funny when trolls say something like: Hey FTR! Why do you hate America so much? All you do is quote the Communist New Network!! heheh ron paul 08

It was a youtube/CNN debate......how much more serious can you get......NOT!!!

So... what's your point? The Youtubers may have been pre-screened, given how many, but is that not better than money men who own the networks deciding what gets asked?

I just had an idea - ready? Youtuber's questions are chosen at random, only screened for the usual dumbass stuff, by an on-line vote from across America.
So then, these cats (female and male) who would rule, and realize please that they CRAVE the job, would face everyman, just like they never do today.

Yes, I gazed it out and it was not very good, but you make it seem like the people asking the questions were at fault for their honest play, and very revealing self-portraits.

If it were up to me, I'd take away the guns.. All of them. I would un-invent them.

Yes, the people asking dumbfuck questions are at fault for asking dumbfuck questions.

your reaction is similar to mine. i thought giuliani came up really small, romney is creepy, mccain looked worn out, thompson seems like he expects the nomination to be handed to him, and huckabee trounced them all.

cnn was worthless. they tried to portray republican voters as gun nuts and religious psychos ( the bible guy was especially sick).

Your inclusion of a .....NOT!! and a 'whatever' face is very fresh and hip.

Nice job, FTR, you pretty much hit the target on this one.
The conservative blogosphere and columnists are accusing CNN of passing over serious questions in favor of irrelevancies and things meant to make the candidates look bad. (Although most candidates - on both sides - don't need help when it comes to looking bad.) Even if that's true, which I'm not saying, CNN just made itself look bad.

yup

If all righteous indignation was expressed in this manner, the world would be a better place.

And um...for once I totally agree with FTR.

That would be great, because then ebaums could mod up questions like:

"Where can I buy battletoads?"

"What are you going to do about AIDS in the pool?"

"I herd u guyz liek mudkipz?"

If the damn writers weren't striking they probably would have had much better responses.

Why do writers hate America ?

i will say that the question from the woman asking the candidates if roe was overturned and abortion became illegal, what punishment should be given to women who get abortions was pretty awesome.

I actually think an American Idol-style debate structure is necessary to get young people interested in the political system, and could be, in its weird way, not only informative, but fun to watch. If anything just to see Simon Cowell insult the fuck out of people who deserve it way more than fucking "Sanjaya."

So here's what I'm thinking... the SG collective pools their funds to buy an island, right? And then all of our news articles can be about how fucking awesome we are compared to the rest of the world. Personally, I think it's a brilliant plan.

So you might think. However, the average American is...well, average. By definition, most people are average, some are brilliant, and some are incredibly stupid.

This sort of debate might even work if we had average people participating. But the stupidest seemed to be chosen.

I know there are a lot of bloggers out there who may be reading this, and I'll probably offend you, but there is something to be said about professional journalism. Putting the media in the hands of the common man is all well and good, except that the common man is generally an idiot and doesn't necessarily have the knowledge, training, ethics, or professionalism to produce quality material.

Sure, the professional media may at times be biased, corrupt, and all the rest, but when it works, it works well, and is more likely to do so than something run by masses.

Wow...that was irrelevant, wasn't it?

I didn't watch it, but I read Salon's coverage of it.

This sounded like a good question, though you didn't mention it, so maybe it only sounds good being read.

Have you read/seen the conservative presence on youtube? I'd say if that's all they came off as, they were being courteous. If YouTube is an accurate portrayal of how people really are, then God help us all.

I remember once turning CNN on they were playing Spice Girls in the background or something ridiculous. Up until a few years ago, CNN was really the only accessable 24 hour US news source for Canadians in the area I lived. Friends would comment to me about how awful it was, especially when the Iraq war started. They found it unbelievable when I mentioned a lot of Americans thought it was overly liberal. I don't know if we get Fox News up here yet, but I can't imagine the reaction.