NEWS: ABC: The Shame Network

POLITICS: ABC: The Shame Network

I loathe Hillary Clinton. Back in the early '90s, I was a fan of the Clintons, but as time went by, it became apparent they were Republicans claiming to be Democrats. One only needs to look at the damage done by NAFTA to understand. Yet, I never disliked them as I do now. Hillary has proven herself to be a horrible viper through her actions and words during this primary season. The woman really is an opportunistic beast. So, I tuned in to last night’s debate hoping to witness Hillary Clinton’s destruction. But I ended up hating ABC’s Charlie Gibson and George Stephanopoulos much more. Do you know how horrible someone has to be to make me hate them more than Hillary? It’s quite an accomplishment.

The first hour of the debate was a complete and total disgrace. Chuck and George didn’t ask a question of substance for the entire hour. The economy? Nope. Iraq? Nope. Housing Crisis? Nope. Torture? Nope. Health Care? Nope. Afghanistan? Nope. Education? Nope. Energy? Nope. Gas prices? Nope. Tibet and China? Nope. Trade? Nope. The world food crisis? Nope. Global warming? Nope. Immigration? Nope. Terrorism? Nope. Illegal government surveillance? Nope.

The majority of the above topics were not covered at all. The moderators started out with a very important issue that America is very concerned about: Whether or not they will choose each other as Vice President. But the question wasn’t just asked; Chuck pressed the issue with follow-ups as he attempted to get Americans to change the channel.

And then we were off and running to a complete and total night of journalistic embarrassment. For the rest of the hour we were forced to listen to a debate covering pressing issues like Obama using the word "bitter," Reverend Wright’s comments, whether or not Wright is a patriot, Hillary’s Bosnia comments, Hillary’s poor polling on honesty, Obama not wearing a flag lapel pin and Obama knowing a member of the Weather Underground. It was pretty pathetic and George Stephanopoulos was a total douchebag. George went after Obama aggressively, which would have been fine if they had actually been talking about issues. Instead, he covered all the subjects that would give Sean Hannity a hard on. And George just happened to be one of Bill Clinton's senior advisors during the '90s. Total coincidence.

After the first hour, they took a commercial break and came back with a question about Iraq, which was nice because these people are running for president, not editor of the National Enquirer. Then they switched to the economy and Chuck actually had the balls to argue with Obama, like a right wing asshole, about capitol gains tax cuts. His questions were framed as if capital gains tax cuts are great and how can anybody not love them? Of course we also spent time on that hot button issue of affirmative action. At the end, the candidates were given one minute to talk about rising gas prices. One minute. Disgraceful.

The decision to have a former member of President Bill Clinton’s cabinet moderate a debate, when one of the two candidates was a Clinton, is insane. The fact that ABC did not make a disclaimer is an example of how far journalistic ethics have fallen. It was hard to watch George doing the obvious biased bidding of his former master on Obama. Couple that with Chuck asking marginally retarded questions from a right wing perspective and this debate was a mess. It was a nice two-hour example of everything that is wrong with our country. We will never change the problems we face with weak imbeciles, like these two, as our leading journalists. Until politicians are asked tough questions about the issues we face, they will have no reason to take action. Our journalists have a job. It’s called accountability. FAIL.

And I was not alone in my criticism. After 7,500 comments, ABC shut down their debate message board -- only 30 minutes into the West Coast airing. When they realized this would only bring more attention, they fired it up again. Feel free to peruse the hate.

Or, you can read some of the comments from angry bloggers.

Again.

And again.

And again.

And again.

And again.

The best line of the night belonged to one of our own. A young lad named PointBlank.

Somebody took a wit class.

For George’s final question, he jumped with two feet into Lake Halfwit.

Ha, ha. Fun! Way to take advantage of the honor America has given you. Now go shoot yourself in the face, George, you useless, biased fuck.

I couldn't tell which was worse in my cheap wine drunken haze. This or the Red Sox game.

Shitty all around.

It was a shitty debate. I could tell Senator Obama was flustered and astonished at what a complete waste of time it was. I am not saying he did great, but he weather some of the most crappy hairball questions I have heard in a really long time.

Actually Chuck did succeed with one thing... I did wind-up changing the channel. I only watched as long as I did, 'cause I thought I was watching an SNL parody.

Agreed... "worst debate ever!"

Oh the irony.

The media has literally fawned over Obama for 18 months. The man owes his presidential run entirely to media bias (pro bias in his favor) and the media's absolute black out of the democratic party's most viable candidates (not obama, not hillary).

Obama fans should get used to this. The media is going to turn on him in the GE just as they have done to most democratic candidates.

I'd give McCain a good 60%-70% chance of winning in november, and if the media and right wing pull that off, then they can pull off pretty much anything.

It's not ironic if it's expected, now is it?

In any case, the simple fact that people are responding so negatively to ABC's debate shows that the media doesn't have complete control over us, such that McCain has a 60%-70% of winning just because the media favors him.

Its ironic because Obama fans have completely ignored previous media bias that has favored him and it is ironic because obama supporters have become quite found of echoing right wing and corporate media talking points against hillar clinton.

But maybe that not the most accurate word (irony). Perhaps a better lead would have been this

"oh the hipocrisy of the obama supporters."

but i was trying to be nice. For the record i vote third party. I don't buy the democrats' you can't vote for third party story and i live in the great state of new york anyway where democrats generally win quite comfortably.

People are rightfully upset at ABC and I hope they give them hell!!!!


PS --surprisingly that's not Pointblank's best work.

I used to respect Stephanopolous, because his Sunday morning political show didn't seem as idiotic as some of the rest (granted, my other options are Fox News Sunday or the CBS snorefest as I don't have cable or NBC). But that is gone. The days of quality, hard-hitting journalism are over. Can you imagine what Walter Cronkite (spelling?fuckit) would have done with this? Even the three recent news departures (Jennings, Rather, Brokaw) would have called bullshit on this one.

They need to have one more debate . . . with Bill Moyers as moderator. Someone who knows how to ask REAL questions, has done his research, and doesn't give a flying fuck if he pisses someone off by asking them something of substance.

EDIT: Do I get credit for feeding pointblank the line that led to his wit? Nothing? Dammit

Don't characterize all Obama supporters as such. Most of us could see the bias against Hilary and, yes, the presence of sexism in many of the criticisms against her.

That said, to portray Obama's successes as anything but earned and deserved it an outright lie. He's faced challenged, first as a relative unknown running against a household name with oceans of goodwill and sizable financial advantage and later as the subject of hatchet job after hatchet on non-issues such as an association with a controversial pastor and questions of patriotism that, frankly, you'd never see directed at a Republican candidate. He's weathered every attack, not because he's skilled at dodging these questions or redirecting negative attention to a fellow party member, but rather because he's capable of turning anything, no matter how frivolous, into an earnest discussions about issues that really do matter.

Ridiculous:




I'd just like to congratulate Nash McCabe of Latrobe, Pennsylvania for asking the stupidest question ever.

Thank you FTR. You just spared me from some painful viewing.

That final question (in the video above) was so insanely out of line and unprofessional I want to punch George Stephanopoulos right in his smug little face. Does it not seem a conflict of interest that George Stephanopoulos used to work for Bill Clinton?

ABC, you have terrible news coverage.

I know I've seen this before, somewhere.

The MoveOn folks have joined in on the, "WTF, ABC?" fun, too.

Oh. the despair I feel. Fuck this election. If anybody really believes that they have a voice in who get's to "decide", they are really deluded. The sooner some kind of hideous alien race decides to de-populate this planet and start over from scratch, the better.

That comment works well with your username and avatar.

Oh, I think we're going to be able to do that just fine on our own.

It was the most-watched debate of the primary season, btw.

I signed the petition, but I can just see it now (or in about an hour, when Gibson goes on the air) . . . they'll read a few of the critics' replies and laugh it off.

Barack calls bullshit too:

Gotcha! story