Stephanopoulos defends debate performance

[tulsakatz]

April 17, 2008
Categories: Debates

Stephanopoulos defends debate performance: ‘We asked tough but appropriate questions'


Despite criticism, ABC’s George Stephanopoulos defended his performance in last night’s Democratic debate, which he co-moderated with Charles Gibson.

“We asked tough but appropriate questions,” Stephanopoulos told me by phone this afternoon.

When I asked whether questions about flag pins or Bosnia are actually relevant to voters, he replied: “Absolutely.”

“The vote for the president,” Stephanopoulos said, “is one of the most personal” decisions that someone makes.

“When people make that choice, they take into account how candidates stand on the issues,” he said, but also are concerned with “experience, character credibility.”

“You can’t find a presidential election where those issues didn’t come into play,” he said.

Stephanopoulos explained that since the candidates are not far apart policy-wise, the “core of the nomination fight” has been about these issues.

“They’ve been fighting it out on this turf,” he said, adding that these are things that “came up between this debate and the last one.”

This morning, websites like The Huffington Post provided multiple attacks on the debate moderators (The Gotcha Debate), and I asked Stephanopoulos for his reaction to one specific piece of criticism — that of Washington Post critic Tom Shales calling the moderator’s performances “shoddy” and “despicable.”

“I think it just comes with the territory,” Stephanopoulos replied, adding, “I think you’re going to find a wide range of opinions.”

“This is an election people are really engaged with,” he said. “They’ve participated. They’ve been watching it. They’re speaking their minds.”

And what about treatment of the candidates?

NBC’s Chuck Todd, for instance, noted that “in the first 40 minutes of the debate, most of the questions were focused on Obama's negatives.”

Did Stephanopoulos feel that the "Saturday Night Live" skit mocking how debate moderators have treated Obama was accurate, and that the Illinois senator has gotten off too easy in the past?

“I’m not going to comment on other peoples' debates,” he said.

Finally, on the repeated shots of Chelsea Clinton on screen — which Stephanopoulos wouldn’t have been responsible for since he was down asking the questions — the moderator said he hadn’t really thought about it.




By Michael Calderone 12:56 PM


http://www.politico.com/blogs/michaelcalderone/0408/Stephanopoulos_defends_debate_performance_We_asked_tough_but_appropriate_questions.html

[underpants]

1. Well he *IS* so cute and pettable

:bounce:

[mod mom]

2. Appropriate since both Bill & Hillary sit on the Board of Co-sponsor Nat'l Constit Center?

National Constitution Center Board of Trustees

NATIONAL HONORARY COMMITTEE
Mrs. George H.W. Bush
President & Mrs. Jimmy Carter
President William J. Clinton &
Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton
Mrs. Gerald R. Ford

CHAIRMAN
President George H.W. Bush


http://www.constitutioncenter.org/about_us/BoardofTrustees/index.shtml

[grasswire]

4. could you tell me how that is relevant?

I don't get it.

[mod mom]

12. It's a conflict of interest to sponsor a debate in which one of the participants sits on the Board

of Trustees.

[grasswire]

16. well, no participant sits on the board of trustees there.

Only the HONORARY board of trustees, which is purely ceremonial.

[mod mom]

19. so you believe there was no favoritism shown to the honorary board member? right.

I guess all the comments at ABC, Huff Po, TPM, Kos, and many here were all wrong and each candidate was fairly asked question. :eyes:

[swag]

3. Such a solipsistic bobblehead.

Step out of the bubble, George.

[Red Zelda]

5. The horse's ass doesn't get it

and never will ... until we bust a few of his fucking teeth out with the bitter fist of public reality. There's some media for ya.

[mitchtv]

6. absolutely disugsting

That's all I can say

[Lasher]

7. This asshole has never been shy about stabbing the Clintons in the back.

And now it's clear he's got a spare knife or two for Obama. Wonder if he'll ask McSame about his illegitimate black child if he gets the chance. That's as much a 'character issue' as the lapel pin bullshit.

[tulsakatz]

8. I just thought you guys might like to see how he defends himself......

...not much of a defense though, if you ask me!

[godai]

9. He thinks flag pins are 'absolutely' relevant. Talk about old style politics.

The good news from last night is that Obama got a dry run of what will come up in the GE. It was obvious to me that the moderators do not like Sen. Obama. Gibson's interruption of Obama's SS answer (He shouted "That's a tax! That's a tax!) was rude and despicable, right out of the Republican playbook.

[Uncle Joe]

10. This line is bullshit.

“The vote for the president,” Stephanopoulos said, “is one of the most personal” decisions that someone makes.

If it's personal, why didn't they ask him what color his underwear are? I'm not sleeping with Obama or Clinton, I'm looking for national leadership!

How on earth can a journalist talk personal when well over 100 million people are making an individual yet collective decision on the leadership for the entire nation? That's not personal, that's national! That personal thinking bullshit is the corporate media's fig leaf for manipulating the American People's impressions ie; subtle brainwashing for what is good and what is bad. Who the hell wants to have a personal beer with the current corrupt incompetence in charge today? Thanks to the corporate media for that one as well.

[tulsakatz]

13. for that matter........

...even if you had a beer with the current corrupt figurehead, it still would not accomplish anything!! This country would still be as screwed up tomorrow as it is today!!

It makes no difference to vote for a person based on a personal preference but sadly, that's the way some people vote.

[Uncle Joe]

14. I believe that's in large part because the corporate media want the people to focus on that.

They caricature the candidates and magnify the trivial, not because candidate A is more personable than the other but because candidate A is more likely to serve the corporate media's agenda and that's not necessarily in the best interest of the American People as a whole by a long shot.

The people don't know it because too many of them believe the corporate media will look out for their best interests, I do believe that's changing.

[Vattel]

18. I think there's a simpler explanation

A lot of journalists are bored by serious discussions of policy; hence the "Gore is so boring" meme and their love of McCain. On his straight talk express journalists would groan when someone asked him a serious question. They preferred to discuss baseball and other regular-folk stuff.

[Uncle Joe]

22. I believe this begs the question as to who hires, pays and promotes "journalists"

that can become bored by serious discussions of policy? If they would rather discuss baseball, let them cover sports and get them out of political coverage.

I see this as coming from the top down, the owners and CEOs of the six corporations that own 90+% of everything the American People see on television, hear on the radio, or read in papers and magazines know exactly what kind of "journalists" they want. I would venture to say the lightweights; who get headaches from thinking too hard and receiving complicated answers or solutions to complicated problems.

I believe, the corporate media's owners and CEOs believe before you can dumb down the American People, you need to first dumb down their information sources. I would call this the "your doing a heck u va job" school of thought in the world of American Journalism.

Regarding their motivation as to the "Al Gore is boring meme" among many other negative memes of him by the corporate media such as the ludcious notion that he actually claimed to have invented the Internet. I would imagine if you had a monopoly in any business and a potential leader came along who empowered a competitor, would you have warm and fuzzy feelings for that leader? I believe subconsciously if not consciously, you would spend most of your time, energy and resources looking for fault and then magnifying whatever you found to keep this leader from coming to power.

In the final analysis, I believe it was primarily because Al Gore empowered the American People around, over or through this monopoly on information by championing the Internet that engendered their enmity to the point of slandering and libeling an obviously superior candidate for the most powerful job in the land over the course of almost two years prior to the selection of 2000.

This may not be a simple explanation, but I believe it's straight talk.

[JPZenger]

11. Great Column by Phil. Daily News Columnist

www.philly.com

Here's a column by a Phila. Daily News Columnist. An open letter to Gibson and Stephenapolus.

"With your performance tonight -- your focus on issues that were at best trivial wastes of valuable airtime and at worst restatements of right-wing falsehoods, punctuated by inane "issue" questions that in no way resembled the real world concerns of American voters -- you disgraced my profession of journalism, and, by association, me and a lot of hard-working colleagues who do still try to ferret out the truth, rather than worry about who can give us the best deal on our capital gains taxes. But it's even worse than that. By so badly botching arguably the most critical debate of such an important election, in a time of both war and economic misery, you disgraced the American voters, and in fact even disgraced democracy itself.

You asked virtually nothing that reflected our everyday issues -- trying to fill our gas tanks and save for college at the same time, our crumbling bridges and inadequate mass transit, or the root causes of crime here in Philadelphia. In fact, there almost isn't enough space -- and this is cyberspace, where room is unlimited -- to list all the things you could have asked about but did not, from health care to climate change to alternative energy to our policy toward China to the deterioration of Afghanistan to veterans' benefits to improving education. You ignored virtually everything that just happened in what most historians agree is one of the worst presidencies in American history, including the condoning of torture and the trashing of the Constitution, although to be fair you also ignored the policy concerns of people on the right, like immigration issues.

... Senators Clinton and Obama were forced to bring up the housing crisis on their own initiative. Instead, you wasted more than half of the debate -- a full hour -- on tabloid trivia that for the most part wasn't even that interesting, because most of it was infertile ground that has already been covered again and again and again.

...The final questions of that section, asking Obama whether he thought Rev. Wright "loved America" and then suggesting that Obama himself is somehow a hater of the American flag, or worse, were flat-out repulsive. Are you even thinking when simply echo some of the vilest talking points from far-right talk radio?"

[leaningprog]

15. Weaselopoulos and Mr. Peepers - An ABC Sitcom

I think with Gibson and Stephanopoulis we have seen the pilot
for a new ABC blockbuster sitcom. Perhaps they can shorten
it to Slime's Anatomy. The constitutional lead ins were the
biggest hoot to me, sort of like Jerry Springer lauding
the promotion of human dignity and then bringing out
the obese hillbillies to bitch slap each other.

When we have garbage politics I suppose we should come
to expect garbage journalism. So how long do you think
it will be before anyone agrees to an ABC moderated debate
again? Maybe next time the Naional Enquirer will run the
show and show us how it's really done.


George can at least sell used cars, but Mr. Peepers
is going towards his golden years and has just invited
a million kicks to his duff to speed him on his way.
Come to think of it, tell Charmin we have a line on
a new Mr. Wipple for them.

[Elidor]

17. He's unredeemable

He's been in the Village too long.

[Doctor_J]

20. There will be a special place for the media types after the revolution

enjoy Gitmo, George

[JPZenger]

21. Enablers will be first up against the wall after the revolution starts

After the revolution starts, the media enablers will be the first up against the wall.

Where's your flag pin, George?

"Where's your PPPL-EDGE PPPin!"
- Niedermeyer, as he spits