Between ABC News’ choice of debate questions and Billary’s “anything goes” tactics, I really believe that the state of hypocrisy in American politics and the media has reached new heights. If Obama has brought in a whole new generation of voters “who can believe” in the country, the press’ need to keep this race alive combined with Hillary and the Republicans’ absurd allegations against Obama will only leave the nation desolate and hopeless. No matter how naive you believe that Obama’s “Yes We Can” message may be, a “no you can’t” response helps no one.
On Friday’s The Bill Moyers Journal, Bill Moyers began by pointing out that
You knew it was going to be a dismal night this Wednesday when just a few minutes into the debate, ABC interrupted the candidates for a long commercial break — the first of many. By the time it was over, the audience had had enough.
Makes you think that if Lincoln and Douglas were around, they’d be sandwiched between a Viagra ad and Victoria’s secret. In a real debate the candidates would face each other on the stage with no one but a timekeeper to enforce the clock. As it is, these ‘debates’ are commercially-staged press conferences about as connected to reality as an Elvis Presley sighting.
The Washington Post’s Tom Shales called the affair “shoddy” and “despicable.” Greg Mitchell of EDITOR AND PUBLISHER said it was “perhaps the most embarrassing performance by the media in a major presidential debate in years.” And the historian and writer Eric Alterman said: “I don’t like to speculate on people’s motives. Just why ABC thinks that a presidential ‘debate’ should entirely ignore health care, environmental issues, science policy, our over-stretched and under-resourced military, an epidemic of people losing their homes, the bailing out of mega-banks, and our disappearing civil liberties… is a mystery to me.
Sadly, as the fantasy-inducing commercials and journalistic narcissism built through the evening, the most damning indictment of all came from facts on the ground, otherwise known as reality.
Just this week Iraq was struck by a fresh wave of violence. At least 50 people died from a bombing at a funeral – a funeral! Sixty people were killed earlier in the week, and 120 wounded.
It’s difficult … but gruesome news doesn’t go away because we look away . . .
In today’s New York Times, Frank Rich has written one of the best commentaries to date on the this season’s hypocrisy: Continue reading →
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