ABC News debate reactions
Michael Gay April 16th, 2008
Watching the debate tonight I was wondering why there weren’t more teases for abcnews.com. It seemed Hillary “pimped” her site more than ABC News. Then I went to the site and saw the comments about the debate. Ouch. Did you see the debate? What did you think?
42 Comments Add your own
1. mickie | April 16th, 2008 at 6:38 pm
Stop the sniping!
This is the most boring debate I hve ever heard.
2. mickie | April 16th, 2008 at 6:38 pm
Stop the sniping!
This is the most boring debate I hve ever heard.
3. mickie | April 16th, 2008 at 6:38 pm
Stop the sniping!
This is the most boring debate I hve ever heard.
4. mickie | April 16th, 2008 at 6:40 pm
Stop with th sniping and irrelevant things. This is the most boring debate I have ever heard.
5. mickie | April 16th, 2008 at 6:40 pm
Stop with th sniping and irrelevant things. This is the most boring debate I have ever heard.
6. anonymous | April 16th, 2008 at 7:55 pm
the previous 5 comments come to you from the Department of Redundancy Department.
7. rich | April 16th, 2008 at 8:19 pm
SHAME ON YOU Charles G. and George S. What rediculous questioning. You started off by saying how important this debate is… that it’s been 6 weeks since the last debate. It’s been weeks since the last primary. Then you spent the whole FIRST HALF of your questioning on “he said - she said.” What?? I’ve lost half of my pay check over the last year. Tomorrow I’m gonna go fill my gas tank with liquid gold… and you’re asking about lapel pins? About miss spoken words or relationships that have no relevance to the issues facing us whatsoever? Where has your common sense gone? And trying to seem like “hardball” reporters asking pointed questions about stupid things that have been hashed and rehashed in the media over and over again that are totally meaningless… What are you thinking? Thanks a lot fellas. The most important election in our lifetime…. lapel pins….
You lost me….
Rich
8. LASHWN | April 16th, 2008 at 8:53 pm
ABC NEWS YOU HAVE STOOPED TO A ALL TIME LOW.
9. Dan | April 16th, 2008 at 9:13 pm
If you were wondering if you would ever see someone
actually putting the nail in the coffin of broadcasting in the public interest, this was it. It was a disgusting display.
One interesting thing; the other networks
digesting the debate said very little about how useless
it was for learning anything about the candidates or the issues. They just continued in the same vain. So it’s not just ABC News that’s completely lost touch with what
serving the public interest is all about.
Say goodnight Gracie.
10. jake | April 16th, 2008 at 10:26 pm
Sean Hannity works for ABC radio; what did you expect? They are all War profit driven, fake patriots, and blood suckers!
11. Keller Higbee | April 16th, 2008 at 10:30 pm
ABC:
I completely agree with most of your respondents. Your conduct of the debate was a disgrace and a living example of how you, the media, have totally trivialized rational, informational public discourse. All of your questions dealt with petty little controversy, and nothing about important public policy. Barack was right; you constantly focus on these sensationaol issues and the really important things are ignored. Why didn’t you ask how they intend to get us out of Iraq, how they’ll try to solve the health care crisis, or the energy crisis?? You’re just scavengers. What an embarrassing display tonight. Why not try to elevate the discourse to what matters to people??
Very disappointed in Salt Lake City,
Keller Higbee
12. kaui Philpotts | April 16th, 2008 at 10:38 pm
I totally agree with most of those who responded here. ABC’s questions were trivial and sensational. Just the sort of silly issues that you in the media tend to beat to death while the really important ones only get discussed on public television. I found the debate boring, repetitive and not worthy of national attention.
13. Aaron | April 16th, 2008 at 11:28 pm
It’ll be interesting to see how the reaction shakes out over the next few days. The folks at Kos and MyDD went apoplectic at the lack of substance and perceived anti-Obama bias in the questioning. I’m impressed they managed to find this thread too… I don’t think they’re going to let ABC off the hook for waiting 50 minutes to bring up Iraq and the economy.
14. Gail | April 17th, 2008 at 3:25 am
It took 51 minutes before an questions of substance were raised….this was a disgrace…and no, we do not need a debate in NC and IN….there have been too many debates
15. J. Levine | April 17th, 2008 at 4:29 am
I fully agree with rich!
16. J. Levine | April 17th, 2008 at 4:35 am
This debate was an insult to the intelligents of the American people and all those who realize the gravity of our currant situation. Congrats ABC News.
17. wren | April 17th, 2008 at 4:54 am
ABC News is the dead mouse on the farm house kitchen floor.
18. D. Sanchez | April 17th, 2008 at 5:39 am
ABC, this was a debate not HardBall with Chris Matthews. Where were the substantive issues that Americans care about.
Whether you are an Obama supporter or not, that “debate” was an abomination set up to create Jerry Springer results.
I think Americans are scrared about the future of our country. Please media, stop hammering us by over reporting on tabloid garbage and misstatements.
One day of coverage on most of this garbage would be plenty. Not weeks of it. To let it filter into the debate when we care about real issues is stupid. I expected better from ABC and the moderaters.
19. Dave | April 17th, 2008 at 6:26 am
There was a debate last night?
Sounds like spending time with my loved ones was a better decision.
20. Dave | April 17th, 2008 at 7:06 am
Historical Lessons:
Worst candidate performance in a debate: Richard Nixon
Worst moderator performance in a debate: Charlie Gibson
21. Onusomos | April 17th, 2008 at 8:08 am
Oh, I get it now…..American Idol for President….with Hillary Clinton the next one to go. Good job ABC News you have devolved and are one of the best in your class. Absolutely no more debates so that Hillary Clinton can continue to pretend she cares about anything other than going down in history as President Clinton II. What’s next? Chelsea Clinton III. Please! No.
22. tdc | April 17th, 2008 at 8:17 am
4922 comments let at huffpo kinda says it all.
23. tdc | April 17th, 2008 at 8:26 am
What were you people thinking of when you wasted 45 minutes on trivia? That wasn’t a debate!. To rehash the nonsense about “bitter” and “Bosnia” was very unprofessional. If you think that the public is only interested in that sort of thing you are the ones being “elitist”. The last portion of the show was much better, but by this time I was ready to drop ABC to last place as a source for real “news.”
Carolyn
24. tdc- the real one | April 17th, 2008 at 8:36 am
personally, i think there’s one last ditch effort afoot by abc and others to try to circle the wagons and force people back to the tv. it won’t work, but it might buy the mgmts. some time to get them closer to retirement.
while i didn’t watch the super bowl, i recall several saying the advertisers were lite on the web promo, too. did the network suggest this?
last week’s “bitter” author was a blogger that nbc forgot to credit with the story instead choosing to credit the nytimes (i think).
maybe we’re not quite out of that denial stage.
did i mention that abc didn’t webcast the debate last night either? except for the local affil.(6abc.com) which i imagine was hammered with users.
25. Anonymous | April 17th, 2008 at 8:57 am
This really was spectacularly bad. Greg Mitchell at E&P was among the kinder reviewers, calling it “embarrassing.” Tom Shales at WaPo called Gibson and Stephanopoulos’s performances “shoddy and despicable.”
26. Tony Brunno | April 17th, 2008 at 11:04 am
ABC News has no business running a debate of any kind. All you guys are interested in is “muck raking”. Americans want to choose a candidate based upon the issues. Shame on ABC News. Charles and George ruined my evening. There’s no question that I’m voting for either Obama or Clinton because I can not take another 4 years of a George W. Bush clone. I would like to hear Clinton and Obama talk more about health care reform, the economy, ending the Iraq war, creating jobs, improving education, fixing social security, fixing medicare, protecting pensions, etc. These are the issues that President Bush and our Congress has completely ignored for the last 8 years. How can I choose a candidate if ABC News can’t conduct an informative debate. Shame on ABC NEWS!
27. real talk | April 17th, 2008 at 11:30 am
I was stressed, depressed, oppressed, and suppressed as I viewed the debate. It was at 3 to 1 attack on Barack Obama. Let me pause to say, that as an African-American woman I am not opposed to a female nor an African-American president. Quite frankly, I am not against a white male president, nor an Asian etc….. After praying and watching, I choose the candidate that I feel God is leading me to elect. I wrote the aforementioned detail to illuminate the fact that I stay objective when watching the debates. Back to my original point…as I viewed the ABC hosted debate, for the first 45 mins. I felt like I was watching another form of “the lynching of a black man in America”. The “attack” questions were no where near balanced. My teenage child even commented, “Why do they keep trying to trip him (Obama) up”? I could not agree more. Gibson spent a hot second on the Bosnia issue and let Hillary off the hook with her “sleepy” answer. I sure hope she is not too sleepy to be Commander in Chief at 3:00a.m. It’s okay to ask questions about a candidate’s association..no problem…I simply disagree with the unfair, imbalanced presentation of attack questions directed toward Obama. I agree with Obama that we need to let go of “silly season” and deal with real issues…let’s have some real talk!!!
28. teedee | April 17th, 2008 at 11:54 am
It is exactly these type devisive politics that obama forewarned about. It is silly season to the point that even the moderators share the same sentiment as the network they represent. Gibson is the poster child of the old political platform and ABC is the beacon of old news. Hannity perpetuates all ill fated questioning exhibited in the abc “DEHATE” towards Obama as he dedicates at least 70 percent of his show to derailing the efforts of concious americans to put a leader in office that shares our conclusion that this is not working and has not worked in 8 years damn near! So bring in change. Please! Gas. Food. Healthcare? Not important. Bittergate and Bosnia? I’m shaking in my boots…Wake up!
29. JT | April 17th, 2008 at 2:52 pm
Until I read this I did not realize that there was still an ABC News. I thought the entire network went away years ago.
30. Jeano | April 17th, 2008 at 3:39 pm
It’s about time the main stream media starts asking Obama some tuff questions. The honeymoon is finally over and now we will all get to see what Obama is made of.
For those of you who think character doesn’t matter I could see why you were bored. However, my vote goes to the person with the most character and as far as I am concerned Obama’s responses to some of those tuff questions made it obvious he is lacking in more then just character. I think judgment is an area he needs to work on as well.
Thx George and Charlie for finally holding him accountable.
31. Jeano | April 17th, 2008 at 3:39 pm
It’s about time the main stream media starts asking Obama some tuff questions. The honeymoon is finally over and now we will all get to see what Obama is made of.
For those of you who think character doesn’t matter I could see why you were bored. However, my vote goes to the person with the most character and as far as I am concerned Obama’s responses to some of those tuff questions made it obvious he is lacking in more then just character. I think judgment is an area he needs to work on as well.
Thx George and Charlie for finally holding him accountable.
32. Anonymous | April 17th, 2008 at 4:32 pm
This isn’t about whether the questions were “tuff.” It’s about whether questions are relevant to people living in the real world. There was nothing about health care, nothing about education (unless you think the problem of “rich blacks” is an important education issue), nothing about the housing crisis, and one question about Iraq. It was all bitter-gate, Bosnia-gate, pastor-gate, flagpin-gate, and, perhaps most absurdly, Weather-Underground-gate. There was little to nothing that helped ordinary Americans decide who would help them improve their lives and their country. And the idea that Obama was held “accountable” here is denied by the fact that what has followed is not harsher scrutiny of Obama, but rather a firestorm of criticism against ABC. If you want to scrutinize Obama, perhaps you should do it in a way that doesn’t make people think you’re an embarrassment to democracy.
33. Debatewatcher | April 17th, 2008 at 6:24 pm
This was absolutely the worst job of moderating a debate. Thanks to Gibson and Stepanopulus.
He said. She said. Who did you associate with. All trivial items that have NOTHING to do with who can be a better president. Who can handle the problems or who has a vision for the future.
What difference does it make if Hillary was wrong about the Bosnia event, or if Obama made a comment that he should not have.
It appears to me that ABC News thinks that the next president only needs to worry about what he or she says. Who they eat lunch with, or who they talk to, etc.. THE PROBLEMS LIKE IRAQ, ECONOMY EDUCATION, OUR IMAGE ABROAD, HEALTH CARE, etc. are all trivial. The only thing that counts is the trivial things that the moderators concentrated on.
Shame on you ABC News, and shame on the moderators.
34. ralph | April 17th, 2008 at 8:14 pm
The interrogators had a woman from PA ask Obama about his lack of wearing a flag pin. Check it out, NEITHER GEROGE NOR CHARLEY were wearing a pin nor was Hillary wearing a pin.
35. ralph | April 17th, 2008 at 8:15 pm
The interrogators had a woman from PA ask Obama about his lack of wearing a flag pin. Check it out, NEITHER GEORGE NOR CHARLEY were wearing a pin nor was Hillary wearing a pin.
36. ralph | April 17th, 2008 at 8:15 pm
The interrogators had a woman from PA ask Obama about his lack of wearing a flag pin. Check it out, NEITHER GEORGE NOR CHARLEY were wearing a pin nor was Hillary wearing a pin.
37. Athena | April 18th, 2008 at 12:22 am
Obama has become another victim of swiftboating
38. tdc | April 18th, 2008 at 8:30 am
if you think obama “has become another victim of swiftboating”, then you’re not watching the live stream of him from erie PA today.
he’s back and putting his boot up some behinds.
39. Jack | April 18th, 2008 at 12:41 pm
Is it for the ratings? If so then get out of the news business and fill the slot with another dumb reality show. Then again, I guess that’s what that “debate” turned out to be. Miserable.
40. Mike | April 18th, 2008 at 12:54 pm
Great questions by ABC. If I was running for office and raciest David Duke came over to my house, I would be asked about it. It is only logical that Senator Obama be asked about his raciest friend who claims that white people started aids.
41. Dave | April 18th, 2008 at 7:37 pm
ABC News has violated the public trust by the shameful and shallow debate format. I will not tune to ABC News as my source for information.
42. Erik | April 22nd, 2008 at 6:40 am
I think it’s wonderful how all these Obama supporters hate how the debate went Personal relationships don’t mean anything? Wright is a racist…he is poison. Obama not only knows him, but he sought him out and looks to him for “spiritual guidance.” MY personal relationships help define who I am…you can tell a lot about a person by the company they keep. Why shouldn’t one care about who their president chooses to be friends with? It’s stupid to ignore that fact. They only don’t matter when it’s a liberal hanging out with turds?
Also, any candidate who says they’re going to pull out of Iraq is lying…it won’t happen for quite a long time. Everyone knows that, they just won’t admit it. And you’re completely stupid if you believe them. I think the candidates appreciate the light attention on issues. You know, because neither of them have any answers to problems that face the country.
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