I am going to link to a DIGG for the comments and video link.
Daily Kos with numerous diaries and all the liberal blogs have more and even the Washington Post joined in the pile-on on ABC. Both Gibson and former Clinton aide Stephanopolous repeatedly assaulted Obama with stupid questions and also played gotcha a bit with Clinton.
Tom Shales with the WP:
When Barack Obama met Hillary Clinton for another televised Democratic candidates' debate last night, it was more than a step forward in the 2008 presidential election. It was another step downward for network news -- in particular ABC News, which hosted the debate from Philadelphia and whose usually dependable anchors, Charlie Gibson and George Stephanopoulos, turned in shoddy, despicable performances.Don't see that in a newpaper very often. E&P agrees - ABC Decides Top Issues Facing Americans Are Gaffes, Flag Pins and '60s Radicals.
For the first 52 minutes of the two-hour, commercial-crammed show, Gibson and Stephanopoulos dwelled entirely on specious and gossipy trivia that already has been hashed and rehashed, in the hope of getting the candidates to claw at one another over disputes that are no longer news. Some were barely news to begin with.
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.Gibson got it wrong again when saying that those making $200,000 and very concerned about capital gains taxes were the middle-class. Income of $200,000 would be in the top 4%. Gibson who is so concerned makes millions and isn't paying his fair share of taxes, paying lower rates than you or I, due to those new capital gains rates.
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 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.
More time was spent on all of this than segments on getting out of Iraq and keeping people from losing their homes and other key issues. Gibson only got excited when he complained about anyone daring to raise taxes on his capital gains.
How is all this supposedly bad news and gaffes affecting the Obama campaign? Hillary is going down in the polls, Obama is going up and Obama picked up four more super-delegates Wednesday.
I've been busy and am way behind on postings. I have a big catch-up post due.
With ABC News terrible in Philadelphia, who has been terrific on location there? Not MSNBC, but Stephen Colbert. Fantastic, and funny, and you learn more from his show than from our so-called-liberal mass media news there.
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