[media id=4993] [media id=4994] (h/t Heather) Charlie, you should be happy that all they did was boo you...last night's debate was an embarrassment
April 16, 2008

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Charlie, you should be happy that all they did was boo you...last night's debate was an embarrassment to the American electorate on so many levels. It doesn't matter which candidate you are supporting, the determined non-substance of the debate is an affront. Will Bunch:

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 witnesses, 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, colleagial 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.

Be glad I didn't quote Tom Shales; to call him appalled might just be an understatement.

And worse yet, what was George Stephanopoulos doing taking marching orders from Sean Hannity? Are you kidding me? After that performance, I'm ready to start a petition that all future debates be moderated by the League of Women Voters again. It's clear the media is in collusion to distract us with non-issues.

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