201988 Resource 102972 21 1 1208566135955 1211379703122 Controlled Charlie Gibson, George Stephanopoulos, Clowns

The heavy hitters--Charlie (oh, sorry, "Charles") and Geoge--badly embarass themselve as "journalists" in the recent Democratic debate between Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama

<p>Unbelievable. These guys have lost it.</p><p>George Stephanopoulos used to have my respect, years ago. Slowly, he began his downhill slide as he moved deeper and deeper into his role as television political talking head. Charlie never really had my respect, but he did not have my scorn. But moderating the <a title="Democratic Debate: Analyzing the Details" href="http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2008/04/16/us/politics/20080416_DEBATE_GRAPHIC.html" target="_blank">most recent debate</a> between Democratic presidential candidate front runners Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton, they have become, well, clowns.</p><p>Charlie's opening question to the candidates was why not pledge, here and now, that each agree to be the other's running mate, brought the same dumbfounded look to the candidates faces as it did to mine. But they were on the spot; they were front and center in front of millions of people, and they did their level best to respond respectfully and not do what I did... simply role their eyes and mutter, &quot;idiot.&quot;</p><p>The hard-driving journalist in George chose to focus on why Barack does not wear a flag pin on his jacket. Christ, is that the most important issue we're facing? After 53 minutes seventeen seconds of inane dribble, George finally asked a question about something real, and he lead into the question with, &quot;Let me turn to the economy. That is the number one issue on Americans' minds right now...&quot; prompting John Steward to wittily interject, &quot;... and this is why I decided to wait almost <i>an hour</i> before getting to it.&quot;</p><p>Just as Fox News has become a shameless propaganda outlet, ABC News has become a tabloid joke.</p><p>This society is so <i><a title="Live Out of Balance" href="http://www.koyaanisqatsi.org/films/koyaanisqatsi.php" target="_blank">koyaanisqatsi</a></i> that its hard to even know where to begin to fix things. But I know that sitting quietly and letting things happen as they will is not the way.</p><p>George and Charlie are clowns. I believe it. If you've read this far, you probably believe it too. Write the networks and let them know. Write the candidates, the political parties, your friends. Don't just sit there.</p> <ul><li><a href="mailto:Info@barackobama.com">Email</a>, <a href="http://fax.marssociety.org/" target="_blank">Fax</a>, and call Obama at (866) 675-2008 </li><li><a href="mailto:info@hillaryclinton.com">Email</a>, <a href="http://fax.marssociety.org/" target="_blank">Fax</a>, and call Clinton at (703) 469-2008 </li><li><a href="mailto:info@McCain08.com">Email</a>, <a href="http://fax.marssociety.org/" target="_blank">Fax</a>, and call McCain at (703) 418-2800 </li></ul> 9 application/xml false ABC news Charlie Gibson clown debate Fox news George Stephanopoulos koyaanisqatsi Network Programming Feedback http://abcnews.go.com/Site/page?id=3271346 Viewers, bloggers and television critics lamented what they described as an opportunity lost: a chance to ask the two candidates for the Democratic nomination substantive questions early and often. http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/18/us/politics/18moderator.html Watch the interactive video from the April 16 debate and analyze the transcript. http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2008/04/16/us/politics/20080416_DEBATE_GRAPHIC.html Just as Fox News has become a shameless propaganda outlet, ABC News has become a tabloid joke. Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.8.1.14) Gecko/20080404 Firefox/2.0.0.14 127.0.0.1 127.0.0.1 $Admin false true false false true 173251 false false true false false false true 102972 blog blogsite/Seidl/web