Saturday, April 19, 2008

Edward R. Murrow or Ed Sullivan?

If you missed the Democratic presidential debate on ABC Wednesday night, Editor & Publisher called it "perhaps the most embarrassing performance by the media in a major presidential debate in years."

Moderators George Stephanopoulos and Charlie Gibson spent the first 50 minutes obsessed with distractions that only political insiders care about--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!

I want to know what they would do about global warming, Iraq, jobs and the economy, and Israel and the Palestinians. Energy independence, clean energy - solar, wind, kinetic, geothermal. Gas milage.

Actually, I don't watch the 'major networks.' I watch the Daily Show, the Colbert Report, Bill Maher, SNL, The Tonight Show. Maher, Colbert, and Jon Stewart are more like Edward R Murrow than Gibson and Stephanopoulos. They're more like Ed Sullivan. Thank god for NPR and the print media.

I just signed a petition to ABC and other media that says: "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."

Want to sign it too? We need a bunch of signers for ABC to take this concern seriously.
Click here to sign

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