The performance of ABC "news" talking heads was so disgraceful, so inane and off-topic from what American voters want to hear about - issues that are truly impacting American lives such as soaring gas prices, soaring health care costs, unaffordable higher education, falling home prices, the falling dollar and rising US deficits, job losses, rising food prices, etc. - that as the network took a break for a last commercial after an hour of INANE, TRIVIAL, "gotcha" questions, the audience BOOED and HECKLED ABC debate "moderators" GEORGE STEPHANOPOLOUS and CHARLIE GIBSON.
HuffingtonPost.com writer Bob Cesca, in his widely repeated "PANDERING YELLOW JOURNALISTS" commentary, captures the essence of Stephanopolous and Gibson WHORING for their corporae masters:
<< Here we had two members of the very serious traditional media going after two Democrats in ways which they have never challenged members of the Bush administration -- despite the Bush Republican record of disaster after disaster after disaster. >>http://www.huffingtonpost.com/bob-cesca/the-very-serious-debate-s_b_97231.html
For a simple example of the TOUGH QUESTIONS (much less PERSISTENT FOLLOW-UPS) that the WHORE corporate media flunkies NEVER ask of President Bush (or, just as importantly, ALLOW him to WEASEL AWAY from with distracting non-answers), a week ago, in insisting that Congress take up and pass the COLUMBIA FREE TRADE bill, President Bush declared on national TV, "IT IS IMPORTANT THAT CONGRESS PASS THIS BILL, SO THE WORLD KNOWS THAT AMERICA _HONORS_ ITS COMMITTMENTS."
Apparently, there was not ONE COMPETENT MEDIA PERSON in one-thousand miles range who could ask Mr. Bush the OBVIOUS Question:
"Mr. Bush, HOW DARE you pretend concern about 'HONORING COMMITTMENTS" - when you have treated the GENEVA CONVENTIONS (and US Constitution as meaningless, disposable, subject to being ignored by your whims and your decrees?"
Over at writer Walter-C-Uhler.com, Mr. Uhler captures the four most inane "depate" questions Stephanopolous and Gibson asked the two Dem. candidates:
<< Yes, notwithstanding the many serious problems afflicting "Bushed" America, we got four nit-picking calumnious questions: (1) Did Obama's characterization of working-class voters as "bitter" indicate he's an out-of-touch elitist? (2) Does Obama believe in the American flag? (After all, he seldom wears an American flag pin.) (3) Can you tell us again, Senator Obama about your ties to the Rev. Wright we know from four controversial out-of-context quotes? And, thanks to question allegedly supplied to former Clinton administration spokesman Stephanopoulos by right-wing hate monger Sean Hannity, (4) What about Obama's association with former Weather Underground terrorist, William Ayers? >>http://www.walter-c-uhler.com/Reviews/barzun.html
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Mr. Stephanaopolous, former President Clinton press spokesman, has followed in the dismal footsteps of JAMES CARVILLE, who back in 1992, as leader of the Clinton-Gore campaign headquarters "WAR ROOM" was full of sound and fury and outrage over the Treasury-busting antics of the Bush Senior administration. But once Mr. Carville's candidate (Bill Clinton) won the White House in 1993, Mr. Carville moved to Washington, where he promptly became a multi-millionaire FAT CAT Washington lobbyist/consultant PR hack, who actually married a Republican spin-meister, Mary Matlin, who had spent her entire career ADVOCATING FOR those exact policies and taxpayer-ripoffs (by Republican officials and businessmen) that Carville had spent HIS career railing, shouting, and fulminating against!
For all of 1992, specifically, Carville, Stephanopolous and the Clinton campaign "war room" had been confronting and taking to task President George H.W. Bush's (Sr.) tendency to put industry lobbyists in top government positions to oversee those industries - functions that the former lobbyists set out to minimize or undo completely. The DEREGULATION or NO regulations agenda led directly to American taxpayers being forced to bail out PRIVATE bankers and rogue, unsupervised operators in the massive US SAVINGS & LOAN CRISIS - often friends and cronies of the Bush-Reagan administrations - to the tune of almost ONE TRILLION dollars, in late 1980s money. (President Bush son, and brother to the current president, NEIL BUSH, was a director on the Board of Colorado based SILVERADO Savings & Loan - which losses cost taxpayers one billion dollars, alone.)
Assuming the value of a dollar today will be almost double the value of a dollar ten years from now, the one trillion dollar losses of the Bush1 S&L crisis of the late 1980s would be almost THREE TRILLION DOLLARS in costs to US taxpayers in today's money - almost exactly what economist Joseph Stiglitz estimates the Current Bush2 (George W. Bush) US deficits are!http://www.project-syndicate.org/commentary/stiglitz97
In 1992 George Stephanopolous was also an outspoken, fighting campaign leader of the Clinton-Gore "war room", but fast forward 16 years, he is now a hopelessly corrupted MEDIA WHORE more concerned with satisfying his corporate masters in Washington and New York at ABC "news" (a subsidiary of Disney entertainment corp.) than he is with asking or delving in to the tough issues American citizens, voters, and news consumers want answers to.
Charlie Gibson is just an inane infotainment talking-head puppet for his corporate entertainment masters at ABC.... George Stephanopolous is WORSE, a PAID PROFESSIONAL LIAR who sees his purpose at his current job as trying to UNDO everything he worked for in his life, that got him his millions-of-dollars-per-year cushy gig with ABC for which he has no grace, class, credibility, or any degree of journalistic integrity.
NEW! - The essence of the Gibson-Stephanopolous "debate" "moderating" is captured in this anonymous (pseudonym) comment
<< "It took the moderators over an hour to ask a single question on policy. They may as well have had Britney Spears asking the questions. If Stephanopolous and Charles Gibson made up those questions, they should both be fired immediately. You did an absolute disservice to this great country. Shame on you ABC News." >>
http://www.theage.com.au/news/us-election/chair-lift-for-hillary/2008/04/17/1208025351372.html
"BRITNEY SPEARS" indeed, what an excellent metaphor for Mr. Stephanopolous, Mr. Gibson, and their bosses at ABC "news" - entrusted by the American people with providing the vital information needed to be good citizens and neighbors in this great land of ours, treat their responsibility to the American public the way Britney Spears treats her children - as props to be put in the back of her car, as she drives off in another drunken binge and tirade.
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The Debate: A Shameful Night for the U.S. Media
by Greg Mitchell, editor, Editor & Publisher magazine
Posted April 16, 2008
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/greg-mitchell/the-debate-a-shameful-nig_b_97122.html
In perhaps the most embarrassing performance by the media in a major presidential debate in years, ABC News hosts Charles Gibson and George Stephanopolous focused mainly on trivial issues as Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama faced off in Philadelphia. They, and their network, should hang their collective heads in shame.
Wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, the health care and mortgage crises, the overall state of the economy and dozens of other pressing issues had to wait for their few moments in the sun as Obama was pressed to explain his recent "bitter" gaffe and relationship with Rev. Wright (seemingly a dead issue) and not wearing a flag pin -- while Clinton had to answer again for her Bosnia trip exaggerations.
Then it was back to Obama to defend his slim association with a former '60s radical -- a question that came out of rightwing talk radio and Sean Hannity on TV, but was delivered by former Bill Clinton aide Stephanopolous. This approach led to a claim that Clinton's husband pardoned two other '60s radicals. And so on. The travesty continued.
More time was spent on all of this than segments on getting out of Iraq and keeping people from losing their homes and -- you name it. Gibson only got excited complaining that someone might raise his capital gains tax. Yet neither candidate had the courage to ask the moderators to turn to those far more important issues. Talking heads on other networks followed up by not pressing that point either. The crowd booed Gibson near the end. Why didn't every other responsible journalist on TV?
To top it off, here is David Brooks' review at The New York Times: "I thought the questions were excellent." He gives ABC an "A." Of course, "A" can stand for many things.
*
Greg Mitchell is author of the new book, So Wrong for So Long: How the Press, the Pundits -- and the President -- Failed on Iraq. It has been hailed by Bill Moyers, Glenn Greenwald, Arianna and others and features a preface by Bruce Springsteen. He is editor of Editor & Publisher. Email: gmitchell@editorandpublisher.com.
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