"Heretic, Rebel, a Thing to Flout" - TAR AND FEATHERING ABC FOR "DISPICABLE" DEBATE

I was dutifully playing secretary at the McHenry County Democratic Patry’s monthly meeting last night when ABC hosts Charles Gibson and George Stephanopoulos played their game of pin-the-slur-on-the-donkey at the Presidential Debate.  I hopped on the Internet when I got home and gave it a spin and found sputtering outrage and slack-jawed disbelief in about equal measure.  It seems like the boys couldn’t get to a substantive policy question for more than 50 minutes, instead pasting both candidates—but Barack Obama in particular—with  a parade of tempest in a tea pot questions.  Flag lapel pins?  Can your opponent win?  In a particularly pathetic moment Stephanopoulos floated a question about the association of Obama and former Weather Underground fugitive Billy Ayers—the two sat on a charity board for a couple of years together over a decade or so ago.  The question was more outrageous in that it was literally spoon fed to the former Clinton political operative by Sean Hannity, one of the most over the top Fox “News” ranters.   

Perhaps it was predictable to find ABC excoriated on the Huffington Post and the Daily Koz.  Certainly it was no surprise to watch Keith Obermann’s reaction at MSNBS in the immediate aftermath of the train wreck.  But it was a mild surprise this morning to hear equally scornful commentary from just about every one in sight, except of the New York Times’ David Brooks, who fawned over the ABC performance.  Just about everyone else was scathing.  In perhaps the most widely circulated critique the Washington Post’s Tom Shales wrote that Gibson and Stephonopulous “turned in shoddy, despicable performances.”  Editor & Publisher it "perhaps the most embarrassing performance by the media in a major presidential debate in years."

ABC’s own web site was deluged by protests, and not just by Obama partisans, lefties, and Democrats.  When I last checked 17,829 comments were posted.  Of course I could read even a fraction of them, but I read dozens.  I was hard pressed to find even one supportive comment.

The network was force to acknowledge the uproar on its evening news broadcast anchored by Gibson.  They ran a piece called “The Debate about the Debate” and even ran scrolls of some of the outraged comments.  At the end Gibson blandly said that ABC appreciates the comments.  He neither defended nor apologized for the conduct of the debate.  Stephanopoulos, a staple of the broadcast’s political coverage was conspicuously absent, although he defended his performance elsewhere.

MoveOn.Org is circulating a petition to ABC and other networks demanding a higher standard of ethics and journalism.  I was proud to sign it.  I hope you do too.