Just had a great talk about the debate and the campaign with a guy I met at the mixer Tuesday night. He seemed to echo a point Andrew Sullivan (via Tiger at Home via Instapundit) made about the debate. Well, Andrew called it “a debacle for the network,” but my acquaintance said ABC News came out the real loser.
This blogger called ABC the “real loser at debate.” I could have sworn I read that line when I, in the middle of the night unable to sleep, read web reviews of the Democratic exchange. (Got that link via google.)
I didn’t watch enough of the debate to judge whether or not ABC had been unfair and thought Charles Gibson seemed pretty even-handed, though asking tough (albeit mostly fair) questions. What struck me was that that former Clinton aide George Stephanopoulos was the only other moderators.
If that ABC News correspondent had any sense of decency or fair play, he would have recused himself from moderating this debate for the simple reason that the husband of one of the participants (former president Bill Clinton) gave him the political job that would later allow him to pursue this career as a journalist.
Can you imagine he outcry if FoxNews asked Karl Rove to moderate a debate in which Jeb Bush participated should that former Florida Governor ever make a bid for the White House?
Perhaps, the lefty bloggers are right and the moderators were too harsh on Senator Obama. (New York Times columnist David Brooks disagrees.) On the surface, the fact that a former Clinton aide was one of only two moderators (and the other hadn’t worked for her rival) struck me as unfair.
To keep up at least the appearance of fairness, I suggest Stephanopoulos recuse himself from covering the presidential campaign as long as Hillary is competing.
Stephanopolous should recuse himself from any Clinton related duties but that doesn’t leave much. Really he should never have been hired to the lofty position he commands. He had no journalistic experience at that time and his only public job was with the Clinton’s in one capacity or another. Of course none of this caused any concern with our left-leaning citizens until it bit ol’ Obammy on the backside… if it did. I don’t see how any media pro could have handled Cry-baby Barry any more softly but, of course, I don’t care who gets spanked harder between Barry and Hill. As long as someone takes it on the chin.
GPW, this is one of the occasions we disagree. Steph left the Clinton fold long ago. To some extent he sees through them, though he is not as hostile as some. That makes him a fairly neutral choice as moderator. And as the event proved, he did a reasonable job. Your Karl Rove – Jeb Bush analogy would only hold up if Rove had left the Bush Administration around 2002 or 2003 and become a Bush family critic. As we know, he hasn’t.
I think it’s about time a major network asked the Democratic candidates DIFFICULT questions. Remember how CNN and others did that in the Republican debates? The MSM is finally showing some even-handedness. ABC is not the debate’s loser, but the debate’s winner; my opinion of them has gone up.
I love the fact that Hannity may have suggested some of the questions that Steph asked. This gets the leftists really crazy
Here’s an example of Steph’s (relative) neutrality and skill. He asked Obama,
That’s a very fair phrasing. The starting premise is yes, *of course* Obama loves America. But it also reflects the fact that when it comes to Wright, Obama still has some ‘splainin to do. By contrast, I would have phrased it:
Getting closer to the truth, I think. But some might pretend that isn’t fair.
I think George left the Clinton’s behind when he realized who and what they were. I think it was a great move on ABC’s part to have him moderate.
I didn’t have a problem with George Stephanopoulos moderating the debate. I guess I’m trusting enough to believe that he could separate political loyalties from his role as a journalist. (As I commented in one of your other posts, Dan, Mayhill Fowler, the blogger who broke the story on Obama’s elitist remarks in San Francisco, supports Obama and contributed the maximum $2,300 to his campaign, but her instincts [and perhaps ethics] as a journalist kicked in and she gave us a story she didn’t want to write.) Despite his partisan leanings and the fact that he gets his paycheck from FOX News, Karl Rove is one of the most objective (and most interesting) political analysts on the air. Tim Russert, who usually terrorizes guests from both parties, is among a number of talking heads who successfully made the move from partisan roles to journalism. (One of my best friends has been a newspaper editor for years at the same time he’s been very active in the GOP, in which he has held important state and national posts. While his editorial page usually reflects his partisan leanings, anyone who reads the news articles in his paper would never know the man in charge lives and breathes Republicanism.)
Anyway, Dan, Stephanopoulos asked Obama questions that needed to be asked, questions that the mainsteam media had been refusing to ask, questions that dealt with two very important issues in any presidential campaign…Obama’s judgment and character.
By the way, Vince P in #3, Sean Hannity more than “suggested” the question about Obama’s relationship with the Vietnam War-era terrorist William Ayres. If one listens to the tape of Hannity on the phone with Stephanopoulos, Hannity is dictating the wording and Stephanopoulos says he is writing it down. If one listens to the tape of the debate, Stephanopoulos asks the Obama the question pretty much word for word as dictated by Hannity.
By the way, Vince P in #3, Sean Hannity more than “suggested†the question about Obama’s relationship with the Vietnam War-era terrorist William Ayres. If one listens to the tape of Hannity on the phone with Stephanopoulos, Hannity is dictating the wording and Stephanopoulos says he is writing it down. If one listens to the tape of the debate, Stephanopoulos asks the Obama the question pretty much word for word as dictated by Hannity.
Um that’s still the definition of “suggests”. Or are you saying that Steph has no power of his own to resist what is asked of him?