Letters to the Editor
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A tale of two ABC's
How is it that in the course of a week, we have ABC News giving us the exposure of the Torture Councils (Principals Meetings) where torture of prisoners was choreographed, followed two days later by an ABC News interview with Bush where he flippantly admitted that he was both aware of, and approved of, these meetings and then only days later have ABC News host a debate where Jonah frickin' Goldberg says "I would find this debate to be nothing but Republican water-carrying"?
Was this ABC News apologizing to the authoritarians for stepping outside the prescribed bounds of stenography?
For those who haven't, please sign the petition at condimustgo.com and view their excellent video. Our government is now openly admitting that it has committed crimes against humanity in our names. The media refuses to follow up on the story. I found 10 bylined articles in the New York Times published between April 10 and April 17 containing the words "Obama bitter" and 30 hits on nytimes.com on the same phrase and time period. There were zero, zilch, nada, no stories originated by the Times about the torture revelations during the same time period.
Click my name to go to ondelette's Humanity Against Crimes blog for more. If you are not outraged, you're not paying attention. Anyone have knitting needles and yarn handy?
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"If you're uncomfortable with it, change the rules or don't run for office."
Changing the rules sounds like an excellent suggestion, and Obama might just be the man to do it. After Hillary's disgraceful performance with the so-called "bittergate" nonsense, I'll never vote for her for anything, although I did sympathize with her when she was on the receiving end of the same kind of nonsense. Well, "I and the public know what all schoolchildren learn/People to whom evil is done do evil in return." The "liberal" media is so paralyzed with Stockholm syndrome that I think it just needs to be institutionalized and fed oatmeal with plastic spoons for the rest of its life.
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My prediction...
Obama gains in the polls after this debate.
The tag teaming against Obama and his cool demeanor under fire as well as his replies will benefit him.
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Right on.
Glenn, I was at your book-signing presentation last night and really enjoyed your talk. Your post today is spot on. Please keep mining this topic -- and trying to interest other progressives in taking it up as well.
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It's time for action...
The campaigns whould make an issue out of these silly debates and dow whatever they can to prevent trivia from dominating the agenda. Advocacy groups need to protest these and organize members to register their displeasure with the debates with the networks and the sponsors.
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I hope...
I hope that the candidates get so tired of this shit that they walk out.
It's obvious that they can't get a fair shake in corporate media town so calling them on it would be a grand idea.
Steering the answers towards major issues or tut-tutting the questions would have been a great thing to see and hear.
A 'I thought we came to talk about being president not what color my underwear is' and a quick 180 and a walk out would have been fantastic.
Having to come and play in the corporatist media's playground for a 'debate' is just stupid. If I was Obama, I'd stop doing it and run a youtube video with the proof..
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Maybe it's my choice of outlets
But i'm finding a lot of agreement over how bad the debate sucked in places I wouldn't have expected.
In particular here:
http://www.time.com/time/politics/article/0,8599,1731655,00.html
And here:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/04/17/AR2008041700013.html
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Michelle Malkin transformed into a Liberal Media champion over this
http://michellemalkin.com/2008/04/17/nutroots-ballistic-we-demand-a-stultifyingly-dull-debate-or-else/
How dare the ABC moderators ask questions about topics that are, you know, topical?
How dare they ask questions that–gasp!–conservatives are asking.
How dare they explore questions of character, truthfulness, and judgment?
She says that the "nutroots" is furious that ABC didn't give them a "dull" debate and what not.
Obviously, Malkin is a woman of principle. Which is why she was so adamant about investigating Bush's National Guard record or his daddy's SEC sweeping his insider trading under the rug and all that.
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Disappointed but not surprised
I watched this debate on and off and at first I could not put my finger on why I kept drifting away. In retrospect I would say that I have become a victim the alignment the Right and the media that Greenwald has described. This just shows how insidious this has become. It is no longer suprising or noteworthy that a political debate or any conversation about politics on TV is dominated by the pettiness on display last night - in fact, it has almost become internalized to the point where it is hard to detect.
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A Catastrophe For Clinton
Clinton's collusion in ABC's hit job is killing her. Online polls at MSNBC and ABC News have Obama winning the debate overwhelmingly (although ABC News appears to have prematurely pulled it online poll). The Obama campaign is apparently claiming to Mark Halperin that PA superdelegates will be switching from Clinton to Obama today. The dynamic here is becoming clear: as a result of last night's debate superdelegates understand more clearly than ever that Hillary will continue to go "scorched earth", and that only their declaring for Obama will stop the bloodletting.
The sight of Joe Lieberman, Joe Scarborough and Pat Buchanan lauding Clinton's "victory" will not sit well with most democrats. The lines have been drawn, and Hillary has placed herself in opposition to the broad majority of democrats with her echoing of rightwing slanders against Obama.
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ABC's Right Wing Bias
Lets not forget:
ABC forced Miramax to dump Michael Moore's "Fahrenheit 9/11," which went on to make over 100 million dollars domestically and is the most profitable doc in history (as well as won an oscar).
ABC created the "Path to 9/11" with that wingnut writer concocting Clinton blaming fictions.
ABC just forced ESPN to drop "The Sports Guy" Bill Simmons's plan to host a podcast with Barack Obama, what likely would've been the highest rated podcast in ESPN history and reached millions of Americans.
Yet ABC has no problem firing off dozens of right wing framed propaganda bits during a DEMOCRATIC PRIMARY, what is supposed to be only for democratic voters's interests (not general election).
They are a disgraceful network.