Return to the scene of the crime
Return to the scene of the crime
There's a big debate tonight between Joe Sestak and Pat Toomey in the Pennsylvania Senate race. The chief moderator is George Stephanopoulos of ABC News, and the venue is the National Constitution Center here in Philadelphia. If that last part sounds familiar, it is because it was there in April 2008 that the former-Clinton-aide-turned-newsman and his ABC partner Charlie Gibson presided over one of the lowest moments in modern American journalism, a largely issue-free presidential debate between Democratic rivals Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton in which a number of inane questions (about flag pins and Obama's "link" with William Ayers of the 1960s Weather Underground) were lamely ripped from the right-wing talking points.
For what it's worth, the fired-up (and perhaps a tad overcaffienated) blog post I wrote after watching these high crimes against journalism remains, to this day, the most widely read post in the history of Attytood, and by a good margin. Here's an excerpt:
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 [sic] 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.
Will Stephanopoulos do better tonight? He cannot do any worse than he did in Philadelphia on April 16, 2008.
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LOLOL! Clarence Thomas needs to be impeached from the SCOTUS. His stupid booze-hound of a shrew wife, drunk-dials Hill's office asking for an apology! Now she's gone and caused a total re-hash of Thomas' beacon of vulgarity shining moments! And his involvement with the Koch Brothers is going to be his downfall - remove him now!— Sick of Stupid- Comment removed.
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Sick of Stupid, yes, nice name. BTW, are you some Bunch acolyte who bought his book and are showing you vast intelligence on this site? Stay away from second floor windows on 11/3.- -- 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, HAHAHAHAHA, you have to be kidding me. Bunch, you are truly delusional.
- BTW, will Media Matters disclose if any foreign money was in that million dollars from Mister International Hedge Fund owner Georgie Soros? After all, Barry Soetoro wants to know.
- blackhawk90. it's "your". And I will be watching out the window as the right are the ones jumping when they realize that their so-called liberal media has been pumping up the right with nothing but hot air. Any gains the right may make on Nov 2 will be the single reason Obama keeps the WH - voters may be upset with Congress, but America HATES Republicans, their failed policies and loser representatives more than ever.— Sick of Stupid
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SBVT-well put. All of that plus Barry has re-written the Declaration of Independence for his own purposes, whatthey may be. We know more about Joe Biden's dog (does he have one) than we know about Barry. The press never wanted to know about his background, or who his influences were. As to Anita Hill, there was never, repeat never, any proof of her allegations. Mr. Justice Thomas's big mistake was not running his progress in life thru the liberal plantation. And sick of stupid on what do you base your allegations about his wife, or are you doing the normal lib routine of baseless charges. What a low life you are.— georgel- Sick of Stupid, regular posters here don't nitpick minor spelling errors. You are some new leftist who read Bunch's stupid book and are here to show your stuff. Not doing too good. Your post makes no sense. If we make gains in Congress and take control of at least the House, why will we be jumping out of windows? Why do you think Barry Soetoro will keep the WH in 2012? Your leftist policies are not popular and the polls show it. His approval is at a low. And how is the "liberal media" pumping up the right with hot air? That's all they ever do and we ignore them. Come up with something of substance; you sound like a lefty who knows your "hopey changey" fraud is going down the tubes.
- I think Sick of Stupid needs to go back to Daily Kos or Think Progress. Thats about his or her speed.
- Recent revisionism notwithstanding, Bush 43 will go down as a good president in the end. Better than his father, better than Nixon, better than Eisenhower, better than Ford, better than Carter and even JFK (gasp!).— BlairW
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