An open letter to Charlie Gibson and George Stephanopoulos
Voicing my outrage over the lowest moment for the American media
An open letter to Charlie Gibson and George Stephanopoulos
Dear Charlie Gibson and George Stephanopoulos,
It's hard to know where to begin with this, less than an hour after you signed off from your Democratic presidential debate here in my hometown of Philadelphia, a televised train wreck that my friend and colleague Greg Mitchell has already called, quite accurately, "a shameful night for the U.S. media." It's hard because -- like many other Americans -- I am still angry at what I just witnessed, so angry that it's hard to even type accurately because my hands are shaking. Look, I know that "media criticism" -- especially when it's one journalist speaking to another -- tends to be a genteel, collegial thing, but there's no genteel way to say this.
With your performance tonight -- your focus on issues that were at best trivial wastes of valuable airtime and at worst restatements of right-wing falsehoods, punctuated by inane "issue" questions that in no way resembled the real world concerns of American voters -- you disgraced my profession of journalism, and, by association, me and a lot of hard-working colleagues who do still try to ferret out the truth, rather than worry about who can give us the best deal on our capital gains taxes. But it's even worse than that. By so badly botching arguably the most critical debate of such an important election, in a time of both war and economic misery, you disgraced the American voters, and in fact even disgraced democracy itself. Indeed, if I were a citizen of one of those nations where America is seeking to "export democracy," and I had watched the debate, I probably would have said, "no thank you." Because that was no way to promote democracy.
You implied throughout the broadcast that you wanted to reflect the concerns of voters in Pennsylvania. Well, I'm a Pennsylvanian voter, and so are my neighbors and most of my friends and co-workers. You asked virtually nothing that reflected our everyday issues -- trying to fill our gas tanks and save for college at the same time, our crumbling bridges and inadequate mass transit, or the root causes of crime here in Philadelphia. In fact, there almost isn't enough space -- and this is cyberspace, where room is unlimited -- to list all the things you could have asked about but did not, from health care to climate change to alternative energy to our policy toward China to the deterioration of Afghanistan to veterans' benefits to improving education. You ignored virtually everything that just happened in what most historians agree is one of the worst presidencies in American history, including the condoning of torture and the trashing of the Constitution, although to be fair you also ignored the policy concerns of people on the right, like immigration issues.
You asked about gun control -- phrased to try for a "gotcha" in a state where that's such a divisive issue -- but not about what we really care about, which is how to reduce crime. You pressed and pressed on those capital gains taxes, but Senators Clinton and Obama were forced to bring up the housing crisis on their own initiative.
Instead, you wasted more than half of the debate -- a full hour -- on tabloid trivia that for the most part wasn't even that interesting, because most of it was infertile ground that has already been covered again and again and again. I'm not saying that Rev. Wright and Bosnia sniper fire and "bitter" were never newsworthy -- I myself wrote about all of these for the Philadelphia Daily News or my Attytood blog, back when they were more relevant -- but the questions were stale yet clearly intended to gin up controversy (they didn't, by the way, other than the controversy over you.) The final questions of that section, asking Obama whether he thought Rev. Wright "loved America" and then suggesting that Obama himself is somehow a hater of the American flag, or worse, were flat-out repulsive.
Are you even thinking when simply echo some of the vilest talking points from far-right talk radio? What are actually getting at -- do you honestly believe that someone with a solid track record as a lawmaker in a Heartland state which elected him to the U.S. Senate, who is now seeking to make some positive American history as our first black president, is somehow un-American, or unpatriotic? Does that even make any sense? Question his policies, or question his leadership. because that is your job as a journalist. But don't insult our intelligence by questioning his patriotism.
Here's a question for you, George. Is it true that yesterday you appeared on the radio with conservative talk radio host Sean Hannity, and that you said you were "taking notes" when he urged you to ask a question about Obama's supposed ties to a former member of the Weather Underground -- which in fact you did? With all the fabulous resources of ABC News at your disposal, is that an appropriate way for a supposed journalist to come up with debate questions - by pandering to divisive radio shows?
And Charlie...could you be any more out of touch with your viewers? Most people aren't millionaires like you, and if Pennsylvanians are losing sleep over economic matters, it is not over whether the capital gains tax will go back up again. I was a little shocked when you pressed and pressed on that back-burner issue and left almost no time for high gas prices, but then I learned tonight that you did the same thing in the last debate, that you fretted over that middle-class family that made $200,000 a year. Charlie, the nicest way that I can put this is that you need to get out more.
But I'm not ready to make nice. What I just watched was an outrage. As a journalist, you appeared to confirm all of the worst qualities that cause people to hold our profession in such low esteem, especially your obsession with cornering the candidates with lame "trick" questions and your complete lack of interest or concern about substance -- or about the American people, or the state of our nation. You embarrassed some good people who work at ABC News -- for example, the journalists who worked hard to break this story just last week -- and you embarrassed yourselves. The millions of people who watched the debate were embarrassed, too -- at the state of our political discourse, and what it has finally become, at long last.
Quickly, a word to any and all of my fellow journalists who happen to read this open letter: This. Must. Stop. Tonight, if possible. I thought that we had hit rock bottom in March 2003, when we failed to ask the tough questions in the run-up to the Iraq war. But this feels even lower. We need to pick ourselves up, right now, and start doing our job -- to take a deep breath and remind ourselves of what voters really need to know, and how we get there, that's it's not all horse-race and "gotcha." Although, to be blunt, I would also urge the major candidates in 2012 to agree only to debates that are organized by the League of Women Voters, with citizen moderators and questioners. Because we have proven without a doubt in 2008 that working journalists don't deserve to be the debate "deciders."
Charlie, I'm going to sign off this letter the way that you always sign off the news, that "I hope you had a great day."
Because America just had a horrible night.
Political bias of the news media has never been so completely exposed. ABC has consistently pushed the candidate choosen by Pennyslvania's political machine. Tonight, media and machine are both like the emperor who lost his clothes while parading through the town. Obama may actually come out ahead thanks to the outrage this travesty ("debate") has inspired, but the loser is ABC and its prima donnas, who will never again be trusted to bring us fair, unbiased, honest treatment of national and world news.— DorisD
EITHER WAY TONIGHT HILLARY WON THIS IN A SLAM DUNK.— PHAZED- Perfectly stated. I know high school journalism students who could have come up with more responsible and informative questions than Gibson and Stephanopolous. (And...Why have President Clinton's long-time top advisor as a moderator? Was Bill himself unavailable?). The voters were ill-served by this disgraceful "performance" (it certainly wasn't "journalism"). After watching ABC, I made a donation to my candidate--as a sign of support for trying to elevate the discussion IN SPITE of the lack of integrity of the questions. Thank you for your comments--I hope people at ABC and elsewhere take note.— JSinclair
- Hillary obviously won this debate...and it wasn`t even close...BO was constantly on the defensive...rattled, poorly answering questions he should`ve been asked a long time ago...meanwhile, Hillary only answered the questions put to her...and got into far greater detail when talking about her superior plans...including the one to get out of Iraq...endorsed by over 3x as many high-ranking vet/military officials!— justme819
- This is what I wrote ABC (and had a hard time posting after jumping through their hoops). I doubt it will make much difference, since the corporate media chooses and defines our candidates, but had to protest the inanity. ****************************************** What a load of truly trivial triiiiiipe! This country is engaged in torture, illegal wars of occupation, and has an international reputation as a rogue... all authorized at the highest levels of the Administration... what are the candidates going to do about restoring honor to America? We are living in the beginnings of a Police State, with domestic surveillance, data-mining, secret NSA letters and secret Executive Orders, mercenaries patrolling New Orleans while the citizens are forced to give up their guns, FEMA building concentration camps, a corrupted judiciary, and our rights to habeas corpus and fair trials stripped at the word and whim of a boy king... what are the candidates going to do to restore the Constitution and Rule of Law to America? Our economy is in the tank, the infrastructure is crumbling, people are losing homes and jobs at an ever-increasing rate, prices for basic foodstuffs are skyrocketing... while the current Administration spends billions of dollars a month on no-bid-contracts to the corporate war profiteers... but these media moderators are concerned about flag pins and other ephemera??? And one of them is a old-time Clintonite? Bias stinks. This debate could have been productive. Instead, it was a double heaping of raw compost. Ask real questions about real problems!!! And get some real moderators with no ties to either/any candidate!— hauksdottir
- Hillary clearly won the lynching but will lose everything else. This will prove to be a big failure on her part. It was clearly a setup. I suspect that Annie got together with Georgie and Sean and worked out the questions ahead of time. ABC the new FOX— jimmbarr
- Thanks so much for your open letter--you said everything that needs to be said. I tried to register my disgust on the ABC blog, but they've closed their message board because it was so overloaded with negative reviews. I hope we can send these phony "journalists" packing after we take back our government. Otherwise, we're back in the USSR my friends.— Mundaily
- Along with most viewers who have chimed in, I was stunned and outraged by the so-called moderators of the so-called debate. I would have liked to hear one of the candidates, however, express his or her disgust ... didn't either feel disgusted by the trivial guttersniping? Have neither of the candidates so little faith in US to APPRECIATE taking ABC to task? Are neither of them prepared to turn the tables on the inane questioners? Both candidates lost ... because they tolerated the intolerable, although I do credit Obama even for his rather mild objections, but I would have liked and would still like to see some serious confrontation with ABC for its willful and demeaning nincompoopcy.— mirth
- I believe Charlie Gibson and George Stephanapoulos' abuse of their position last night was deliberate and so insulting to PA and American voters they should be FIRED. If you argue that it was just a mistake on their part then they should be FIRED for incompetence.— rookwood
- the media love affair with BO is dying...they had been been so Pro-BO and anti-Clinton, it`s ridiculous...consequently, we know very little about this guy...it`s about time someone started asking about his ties to terrorists, etc., and other undesirables he`s associates with...KUDOS to ABC for being the 1st to do so...but they shouldn`t have done it during a debate...but, if you think ABC was tough, just wait to the PUBS get going...everything brought up in the 1st part of the debate will be brought up by the PUBS repeatedly during the summer and fall...and they will TRY TO tear BO apart on these things...ISSUE-RELATED OR NOT!...FAIR OR NOT!!!— justme819
Comment removed.- We have not had any good journalism since Bush stole the office in 2000. I truly believe the news people count on the stupidity of the masses and at this time they have the right! We have been dumbed down so badly because we spend more time worrying about "American Idol", reality shows and other drivel that anything can be sprung on the masses and they fall in line! There are no honest journalists in television anymore, except Bill Moyer. Not one of these idiots are asking real questions about the economy, gas prices, Iraq, people losing their homes, health care, food prices soaring! The politicians running for the coveted office of "Ego of the world" are just that, sneaky, lying, millionaires, who will stay the same path as what is going on today! They talk but do absolutely nothing for the middle class and the poor! Thank you Will Bunch, I do read your column often and like your style! And this goes to Hillary, I like you lady, but you are just like all the others. All talk and only looking out for your interests! I like Obama, but he needs experience and I would like to see him win and show us if he can put his muscle where his mouth is! The journalists who run these debates are useless mouthpieces for the right wingers. They are all low lifes!— nuffera
- Comment removed.
- Your message could have been stated much more succintly and accurately: "To be a real 'journalist' you MUST at all times play the role of LIBERAL DEMOCRAT!!!!".— Victor76
- Just adding my voice to the chorus of "well said." Last night was appalling.— ruthm
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