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I was made to promise that I wouldn't write about Obama anymore. But after the mockery ABC News made of democracy last night, I just can't restrain myself.
The debate that ABC News hosted was a blight upon everything the media should stand for. Rather than focusing on the issues, Stephenopolis and Gibson decided to go for a hatchet job. For over 45 minutes they focused on controversies rather than the issues that Americans deserve to hear about. To further compound this distressing lack of any sort of substance for the first half of debate, ABC News ignored basic journalistic ethics by letting Stephenopolis, a former member of the Clinton administration, moderate without revealing his conflict of interest.
This "debate" was a hatchet job. Rather than focusing on anything of importance they decided to try to impugn the patriotism of a candidate with "Gotcha!" questions that have been answered time and time again. Rather than talking about the economy or Iraq or a host of other problems, they focused on "Do you love the flag?" and guilt by association smears used to help the wife of the moderator's former employer.
Even when they turned to issues after over 50 minutes, the debate remained shameful. Every question asked had a right-wing tilt, trying to force both Democrats to admit to the superiority of the Republican point of view rather than argue their own position. Moderators should be neutral parties, making sure that the participants stay on topic and follow the rules, rather than trying to brow beat them into accepting ideologically charged premises and arguing down at them like Gibson did.
The bias of the night continued in this section. While the questions were laughably right-wing, the moderators gave Hillary Clinton more time, citing the fact that Obama got more speaking time during the first part and the need for equality. They used the fact that they had used the first half of the debate as a hatchet job in order to give him less of a chance to speak in the second half, furthering the farce.
Debates have turned from an informative look at the positions of a candidate into a media circus. ABC News took it further. In order to get ratings, it used its debate as a tabloid attack on a candidate while trying to bolster the cause of another. Rather than trying to inform, it went for a level of discourse that should be an insult to all Americans. ABC utterly failed in its journalistic duty.
It's time to give debates back to the League of Women Voters. At least then these events were treated with the seriousness they deserve, and we got to hear from third party candidates. It's better than this mindless circus that ABC News has shown us.
John Fullwood was formerly affiliated with the Obama campaign.
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