ABC Has Lost Its Cotton-Pickin Mind / What Do We Do? (FCC REFORM!)
"Senator Obama, a guy who you sat next to you on a plane for several hours was recently heard saying that America wears combat boots. We've brought him here tonight. Will you kill him with your bare hands, or do you not love America?"
That about sums up the so-called "debate" which was much more freak show than anything resembling a deliberative discussion. Constitutional Hall should be declared a national disaster zone.
I may write something more substantive later, but what happened on television last night was a disgrace and a great disservice to the American people and the people of Pennsylvania. I watched from a bar in Philly not far from the debate site and had a mind to walk over there and pull the plug on the entire operation. Utter and complete nonsense it was.
To add insult to injury, here's the headline from ABC News' own coverage:
Clinton, Obama Find 'Brotherly Love' at Philly Debate
Dems Last Chance to Settle Scores Before Pennsylvania Primary
Half of the debate. Half was entirely about bullshit the country has already processed and was more than ready to move beyond. I could barely contain myself, and I got even more frustrated when my fellow debate watchers weren't ready to storm the place with me. Thanks for keeping me sane JJP.
Here's something from The Onion we can all appreciate:
Poll: Bullshit Is Most Important Issue For 2008 Voters
So what can we do? I'm quite tired and have to get up early, but would love to hear your ideas and leads. Is it even worth calling, writing and tying up the lines at ABC? Pressing for non-renewal of their FCC license? Harassing advertisers? Increase coordinated efforts for media reform?
Of course I'm bothered by the lack of balance and hate that they slammed Obama as hard as they did, but I'm most deeply offended by the lack of substance!
I have a feeling a boycott won't work in a case like this. Folks are likely to move on. I guess I expect very little response from ABC or any MSM outlet. We have to keep doing us, building up our grassroots media and activism and accountability.
Share your ideas in the comments, and let's see what folks respond to. Also, what are other blogs and organizations doing?
Update @ 10:23 am
The NY Times debate tool is very useful in times like these. This was a 90 minute debate. Iraq came up at minute 41. Minute 7 is where they started into Obama over bittergate. That's 34 minutes of bullshit to start the debate off. Of that time, 5 minutes were spent on Hillary's credibility, the remainder on Obama.
So 29 minutes on Obama
& 5 minutes on Clinton
6-to-1 pile on measured in the most important terms to television: time.
Now as for what we can do...
Some steam-blowing-off activities:
- George Stephanopoulos got his Weather Underground question from Sean Hannity. Here's the audio to prove it.
- Get at ABC News via web form
- Jam their phones with complaints. 212-456-7777 when you call, if you ask for News, then press 2 then 199 you can leave a message for "Other News"
ABC is but a recent expression of a larger genetic defect in our media system. We've suffered a lower standard, in part, due to the treatment of news as a profit center and massive consolidation.
Go to FreePress and Sign The Petition at StopBigMedia.com. This will call on Congress to reverse a recent FCC decision to allow further consolidation.
57 comments:
Let's not forget George Step... worked for Bill Clinton. Basically, the plan of action was to destroy Obama by making him look like a radical black candidate, bringing up Rev. Wright again, despite the fact that it's been discussed a gazillion times, bringing up the "bitter" comment, bringing back the unpatrioatic crap and connections w/ Bill Ayers. All of this was a coordinated effort to let rural PA voters (and Indiana voters) know not to vote for a radical black guy, who is unpatriotic. Let's look at the bright-side, they didn't bring up the fact that he may be a muslim.
I think voters will see for what it is... which is true bashing of a candidate. The media is getting a heart attack over the fact that Obama is able to weather these storms, be it "Wright" gate or "bitter" gate. I hope the O-Man pulls this off. Looking over the comments on "www.abcnews.com" - regarding the story about the debate, they seem 90% pro Obama. Let's hope there's a huge backlash against Hillary, who I no longer have any respect for. I'm appalled that she would use right-wing talking points against a fellow Democrat.
Obama 08!
The comments at ABC are telling. Over 10,000 comments and 99% of them are from pissed off viewers. Some are calling it an ambush or lynching. Others are saying tis the worst debate ever televized. People all are talkinga bout the lack of coverage of issues. ON Olberman's show one of the pundits called it a 5 on 1. George, Charlie, Hillary and Hillary doing the work of John McCain and the Republican party. However in the polling about who you thing won.... Obama is leading hillary by nearly 3 to one. He's also beating her in the polls at MSNBC and Drudgereport.
One more thing I forgot. They had to throw in "Affirmative Action." The sad thing is this... you don't do this in your party's debate. It's kind of like having a GOP debate and NOT talking about immigration and terrorism. This is how it felt today..> No mention of health care, no mention of gas prices (very little at least), foreclosures, environment, etc. Instead, let's parrot what some right-wing freaks have suggested. Hillary could have been a gentle-lady about it and put water on the fire. Instead, she put as much gasoline on it as she could. Fortunately for Obama, she looked so deceiving and fake. I just HOPE he beats her in PA.
Jack,
You were so pissed you had to write up one tonight. I'm feeling you.
It was patently absurd. The entire farce.
The ABC Boards are hilarious. They've shut them down, they're so hostile.
I just think it's important to communicate with people who aren't on blogs and YouTube like we are. There are tons of silent lurkers of course, but most people don't have time to read JJP, Andrew Sullivan, ABC's blogs, etc., so they may miss some important salient points.
Send relevant emails with solid points (and attribution) have civil conversations and be prepared to explain various issues in a civil manner.
I remember reading someone recently that Bill Clinton once depended on the intelligence of the American public to get him out of the Lewinsky mess, but now he (and Hillary) are depending on the ignorance of the American public.
Just like Obama eventually pulled it out in Texas (you'd barely know it by the press coverage) and stunned the "experts" by pulling out South Carolina with a 28-point edge that no one predicted, let's hope that he can stun everyone again and win Pennsylvania after all of this mess.
And I hope we can get a campaign commercial about Barack and Michelle's "elite" upbringing. They should do an ad where they state plainly - with pictures! - that Michelle was raised on the South Side of Chicago by a stay at home mom and a dad who has MS and yet provided for his family by working at a plant. They should remind folks that Barack's mother was, as Michelle says in her stump speech, "an 18 year old white woman raising a black kid in the 1960s".
And they should definitely reiterate in this ad that they just paid their student loans off 3 YEARS AGO!!
Those ads need to air PRONTO!
I remember reading *somewhere* I meant to say.
Write a complaint to ABC News.
http://abcnews.go.com/Site/page?id=3271346&cat=ABC%20News%20Specials
Someone need to go after Sean Hannity, the source for ABC's debating list.He has a new $10.7 million dollar house going up , and he complains about Rev.Wright's $1.3 million dollar house.There aphoto on Dr. Boyce Watkins Blog of Dog the Bounty Hunter's son in nazi attire, Sean with Roy and Niger Innis held a mini-telethon on his show to try and get his job back.Finally there is Hal Turner anti semitic and racist who had a sleepover at Sean's. Hal wants to blow ricin itno the face of Sen.Obama. The JEWISH and MSM media in Pennsylvania should know about this before next Tuesday.
I read this blog daily; first time commenting. And I knew, I just knew after this fuckery one of y'all would have to post 2nite. And sure enough...the post lives...thanks for that unintentional validationI'm so pissed right now. Emailed ABC already. Been on Kos, DemUndgrnd, HuffPo etc...of the sites that will try to collectively 'do' something about this ish, most are trying to figure out what that is exactly. Unfortunatelt, by the rush hour tomorrow, there may be nothing from a gang. There have been tons of emails and calls. But the perverted thing is that the rest of the media bastards will be gleefully preying on their own as fresh meat in this corporate media hustle...ratings are ratings afterall.And the issues will die again. I'm disgusted and can't even sniff the middle class anymore. Its all good though, I can see clearly and ABC is not part of that vision.
We deserve the President we get. Read it again, don't get dismayed...get bi-polar...angry and hopeful...its a good mix.
Boycott, email campaigns...I'm down for whatever. (Chill FISA hoes, its all legal LOL)
I KNEW this "debate" was gonna be a bunch of crap designed to make Hillary look good. That's why I didn't even watch it, didn't want to send my blood pressure through the roof. I'm just so glad to hear people saw through ABC's one-sided portrayal and didn't believe the hype.
Barack is gonna win Pennsylvania, I'm claiming it in the mighty name of Jesus...
With the ABC debate, we saw a new low for the negative politics of the Clintons and the Republicans. This may backfire on those jerks; it may backfire in favor of Obama, as people saw him acting like a REAL HUMAN BEING, tired and all, against thinly-disguised aggression. Actually, the aggression wasn't really disguised at all.
Was it really that bad? Should I even bother looking for a transcript?
Are y'all sick and tired of me calling for a change in media management? Am I being too shrill about this issue?
Good gawd; ABC's actions were horrible. As I predicted, they led off with questions on issues that they (the media) felt were most important: the issues that they themselves manufactured. Then followed up with another 20 minutes on Jeremiah Wright; capping it off with the "are you patriotic enough" silliness. After 45 or 50 minutes of this crap, I changed the channel. It was obvious that ABC wasn't going to moderate a serious debate on the pertinent issues of the day.
Barack should be pissed off with today's media right about now. Question is, what can he do about it?
D., imagine for a second if John McCain and the RNC got together and picked questions for a Democratic debate. That's pretty much what happened. And I'm not being entirely figurative here either: George Stephanopolous lifted one of his questions directly from Sean Hannity (per an interview with him earlier in the week).
I'm sorry--if you don't support Barack Obama, that's fine, but if you can't acknowledge that this debate was a farce and that it offended decency on so many levels, I don't even want to know you.
I want some kind of action to be taken. Certainly if David Schuster ca