ABC or Disney has gone over to the dark side. Their pseudo-documentary "The Road to 9/11" was a fictionalized hit piece on Bill Clinton's administration. It was totally made-up, written by a right wing Republican who nevertheless claimed it was factually true. Bill Clinton and members who were slandered should have sued ABC.

Now we have George Stephanopolous doing a hit piece on Barack Obama under the pretext of a debate. He is not a journalist, but a political operative who was communications director in the Clinton era. At minimum ethics should have demanded he reveal his conflict of interest. ABC is a network utterly without integrity.

If Obama is going to be the nominee at what point are his supportors going to quit handholding, making excuses, and blaming everyone else. Let him show that he is able to hold his ground, take some heat, and fight. Hillary managed to take those tuff questions and give a great comeback by talking about her posistions, she does not crack under pressure. We are not electing a dog catcher-its a president, and only one candidate acted presidential in that debate, and it was Hillary...Annoying isn't it...

Sandra, The "straw man" argument in debating is an ineffective ploy. You describe a situation that isn't happening and then condemn it. Our guy doesn't crack, and more importantly, he doesn't make up stuff, like sniper-fire, then lie several times over to cover up the original lie. Not very presidential....Pathetic!!

And by the way, "tuff", that's spelled "tough."

I condemn ABC for their phony show at hosting a debate, where issues of vital national interest are ignored and trivialities and gotcha questions are used and the public is cheated of the benefit of a real debate. I condemn them equally for their outrageous lies about Bill Clinton and trying to blame him for 9/11. Surely you can't object to that!

Using a former member of the Clinton Administration as one of the (supposedly impartial and unbiased) moderators was beyond the pale.

ABC out"Foxed" Fox.

It turns out the flag lapel question was a set-up. The supposedly neutral questioner was already an Obama hater and was intending to vote for Clinton. This is "gotcha" politics for sure. Gibson and Stephanopolous aren't journalists or even game show hosts, they are political operatives. Stephanopolous needs to be called out on his conflict of interest. And both of them need to be called out on their obvious deceptions.

The Pa. debate seems to be hurting Clinton more in Pa. In thurs. night polling the race is tightened now to just 3 pts. since Mon. in polling by Rasmussen. Rasmussen has good credibility.

Just in: The Democratic Presidential Primary in Pennsylvania is getting even closer. The latest Rasmussen Reports telephone survey in the state shows Hillary Clinton with 47% of the vote and Barack Obama with 44%. This election poll was conducted Thursday night, the night following a nationally televised debate between the candidates. Last Monday, Clinton was leading Obama 50% to 41%.

It's not just ABC that is the problem. A cancer of ethical corruption is rampant throughout most of the media. There would be less of a problem if the people had higher standards and demanded better. As long as people buy into tabloid journalism the media will feed their appetite. The consolation from the ABC debacle is that a significant number of people, including journalists, stood up and said, "Enough. We don't want any more of this crap." Let's hope it sticks.

I know it always seems futile, but go to the link and sign the petition. In the comment box I asked that they quit dumbing down the campaign. They underestimate the intelligence of us all. A million petitions might give them pause.

Bill Bodden: "It's not just ABC that is the problem. A cancer of ethical corruption is rampant throughout most of the media. ....The consolation from the ABC debacle is that a significant number of people, including journalists, stood up and said, "Enough. We don't want any more of this crap." Let's hope it sticks."

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Well said, Bill! Media outlets are held by corporate conglomerates. They care only about profits. Hard news and real reporting costs money. It's much cheaper to hire a talking head and have them sit around and spin pseudo-events with uninformed opinions. They are not journalists but hired propagandists, opinion makers. All these people sit around on the same bar stools after hours and talk to each other passing on the same crap, pretending that they know something, pretending they are "in touch" with Americans, pretending that they have special knowledge that others don't.

That's why they diss the internet, the blogs, because non-traditional news sources are becoming democratized and global. It threatens their privileged standing. The more people disconnect with these phony media outlets and begin to do their own search for news from sources available throughout the internet, the closer we can get to an informed citizenry. You can go to any newspaper in the world now, or television outlet, or other non-traditional media and develop your own newscast. And if you read in a foreign language or not(many have English language versions) you can get other points of view. (I read Italian, so I can go to any Italian newspaper and get a point of view we never get here.)

What we get now through network and cable news is basically crap, pure crap. There's no good way to describe it. And they don't even make a pretense of real journalism any more. The people they hire have no background or training in journalism or journalistic ethics. They are just television "personalities." They conduct themselves on the same level as the TV tabloids. Even NPR political reporting has gone down the tube. The NPR commentators all double on Fox News or ABC, and are indistinguishable from the other talking heads. Sheesh.. And they answer to non-journalistic CEOs from Disney, GE, and other conglomerates. The control of and access to information and communication will determine whether we can really have a democracy or some bastardized corporate plutocracy, which is what we mostly have now.

The blogosphere does have the potential to become the modern pamphleteer and news daily, the public square where news is shared and people discuss their interpretations of it and views about its meaning. It would be nice if we could avoid a balkanization though and find a common ground of encounter to create a real civic and civil culture.

I've watched almost all of the debates. This, actually, was the first time I felt that the questioning on issues was balanced between the two candidates. Sen. Clinton has been subjected to far more harsh questioning than Sen. Obama. Do you remember Tim Russert asking her if she knew the name of the successor to Putin? And if you want to keep up the Bosnia thing, then let's also continue to bring up Sen. Obama's self-contradiction regarding whether he was not or was in the church when Rev. Wright spoke such vile words.

Fair is fair.

Barack Obama is a complete JOKE. For the first time in 5 months of debates he faces some tough questions and he reacts with complete HYSTERIA. How WEAK is this man? How ARROGANT is this mean? How dare the ABC moderators choose not to kiss his feet and worship his flawed candidacy!?! Moveon.org needs to do just that - MOVE ON! Obama's game is over - he has proven he is completely WEAK and unable to face reasonable criticism. His immature and petulant behavior after the debate has been an embarressment.

Please post the entire debate, and show exactly how well Senator Clinton did.

Fumbles all over the debate. http://youtube.com/watch?v=pPCfmVN1lAg

He looses, so he Flips off his finger:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UoOFp-RDpvM

Test your current affairs knowledge (1 minute; 14 questions): http://www.hillaryclinton.com/feature/quiz/

AMERICA'S CHOICE: http://www.veoh.com/videos/v639561038xa5ctK?searchId=7463654096325816320&rank=1

Commander-in-Chief: http://flags4hill.com Economist-in-Chief: http://www.cnbc.com/id/15840232/site/14081545/?video=700530203&play=1

REFERENCE CHECK!! www.thehillaryiknow.com

<h1>Hillary's Solutions: www.hillaryclinton.com/Issues</h1>

Great news here for ALL OF US MIDDLE CLASS PEOPLE!! (April 16, 2008) “Clinton Earns An A+”(themiddleclass.org)

http://www.themiddleclass.org/legislator/hillary-clinton-424?gclid=CMqHrs3E5ZICFSQ8Igodkh_ZwA

The Middleclass.org endorsed her with an A+, UPON EXAMINATION AND FULL DISCLOSURE OF HER COMPLETE SENATE VOTING RECORDS. You can read every bill and her vote and what they rated her and how it came about. This is barebones facts. Very Nice to hear.

c716t

I am wondering mightily about Clinton supporters. Critique of the ABC debate centers around the vacuous questioning, not the fairness toward either candidate. It seems Hillary's minions are developing a nasty persecution complex.

How many supporters of Obamary were critical of the way Kucinich or Gravel were treated in earlier debates?

Who has been saying for the last four election cycles that the corporate media are rabid dogs that need a muzzle?

There's so much hypocrisy here that I feel like I need to ralph.

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