ABC Hosts Heckled After Debate: "The Crowd Is Turning On Me"

[Ichingcarpenter]

Reflecting what seemed to be the main consensus of the night - that ABC botched this debate, big time - Charlie Gibson tells the crowd there will be one more, superfluous commercial break of the night and is subsequently jeered.

"OH..." he declares, hands raised in defense. "The crowd is turning on me, the crowd is turning on me."

Off camera, observers let out their frustrations.
Visitors to ABC's site weren't much kinder. Here's a sampling on page 1:

...This is AWFUL. Thank goodness for Jon Stewart and Comedy Central. He does a better job of interviewing and asking relevant questions of his guests in 5 minutes than these 2 yahoos have in more than an hour. ABC should be ashamed. George should be ashamed. Charlie should be ashamed. This isn't a debate. This is a hit job.



...Asinine questions - abysmal debate. Fire these silly moderators NOW. They insult the intelligence of the American people.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/04/16/abc-hosts-heckled-after-d_n_97124.html

[Ichingcarpenter]

1. Here is the digg.com link.......

http://digg.com/2008_us_elections/ABC_Hosts_Heckled_After_Debate

[SoFlaJet]

2. he deserved it-they BOTH did

that was the worst display by the media in 21 debates-to Charlie and George; you did a totally craptastic job last night boys

[SwampG8r]

3. w would anone givethis debae any credence nyways?

who does stephanopolis owe everything to?

[spanone]

4. not the crowd, charlie, the whole nation

[panader0]

5. After reading about the debates, I'm glad I missed them.

[Ichingcarpenter]

9. I turned it off after 50 mins

FISA, Iraq occupation, Torture approval at the white house, foreclosures, raising food costs, global warming, stagnate wages, national health care.......... the list goes on and they covered tabloid crap.

[morningglory]

6. Moreover, for comment after the debate, turn on tweety and there is Pat

Buchanan, asked to comment on everything that happens in the world today. Plus that simple-minded guy from the Boston Globe, old Imus re-run. They are failing us again. Glad someone heckled them. They should be run out of town on a rail, all of them.

[Bensthename]

7. It was horrible. But Obama held his own just fine.

[MagickMuffin]

8. So is Mickey

[kentuck]

10. Don't let the SOB's off the hook!

They did it to Obama this time and they will do it to Hillary the next time. They did it to Bill already with their "documentary", Pathway to 9-11. Remember???

[K Gardner]

11. Massive list of ABC email/phone contact #s. Spread it around.

ABC NEW YORK NEWSROOM: [phone] [e-mail] Newsroom Fax Machine 212.456.5150

Peter Salinger (THE MAN IN CHARGE OF ELECTION COVERAGE) Director, Special Events & Sports 212.456.5105 [e-mail]

Cristi Landes, Manager, Programming 212.456.5107 [e-mail]

Wayne Fisk Director, Programming 212.456.5327 [e-mail]

Jeff Fitzgerald Executive Director, Operations 212.456.5554 [e-mail]

Heidi Oringer Executive Director, Entertainment 212.456.5541 [e-mail]

Jon Newman News Coverage 212.456.5100 [e-mail]

Joyce Alcantara Assignment Manager 212.456.5106 [e-mail]

Jim Kane Deputy D.C. Bureau Chief 212.222. 6604 [e-mail]

Andrew Kalb Executive Director, Programming 05.567.2269 [e-mail]

Robert Garcia Executive Director, News & Sports 212.456.5103 [e-mail]

[CTyankee]

12. Gibson gets all "Princeton grad" smirky so often I want to strangle him.

His air of superiority is suffocating. I used to like him. NOT NOW!

He and George are just sad, old clowns still clinging to their "importance" as "political commentators." Their day is over. Haul them offstage...

[CherokeeDem]

13. Just Sent this EMail to ABC

Sent to Peter Salinger, head of ABC Election Coverage.

Mr. Salinger:

I have been a political activist for almost 30 years and I have watched many debates during that time, from national debates to local election debates, and never have I seen a more despicable performance by moderators than I saw last night. ABC had the opportunity to raise the bar here and actually discuss the issues with the candidates. Instead, you choose to be petty, abrasive, argumentative (Gibson took the capital gains issue personally, didn't he), I dare say, "tabloidish". The need to quote the Constitution to the public speaks of condescension on your part for your viewers ability to understand what is at stake here. Gotcha journalism is not something to be proud of; however, you took it to extreme and proved there was nothing to be proud about. The fact that Stephanopoulos was influenced by a biased right wing pundit to ask a question of Senator Obama just shows the very serious lack of ability on ABC's part to grasp what the public really wanted and needs to hear. In case you still haven't figured that out, we need to know what are these candidates going to do to solve the serious issues facing this country. Yet the debate was almost an hour old before anything of substance was asked.

I am certain had Peter Jennings still been alive this debacle would never have occurred. The reputation of ABC News was seriously damaged last night and I, for one, will never watch coverage by ABC of any news event again . Come of think of it, I don't watch any ABC shows at all. I suppose the entire network is in trouble, especially since Wolf Blizer is beginning to look like Edward R. Murrow in comparison. That is sad.

ABC News owes an apology to the citizens of this country for failing to provide the true journalism we deserve.

[rniel]

14. My email

I'm not anywhere near the writer most of you on DU are but here's my note to Mr. Salinger

___________________________


I'm complaining about the debate last night. I think the point of having a debate is to help democratic voters to decide on which candidate has the best ideas on how to solve our nations problems. Not sure how asking "who's wearing the most flag lapel pins" has got to do with solving the problems with our country. The first 40 minutes of the debate there was not one issue discussed of any importance at all. Is the public's best interests to not have to listen to anything they have to say about what they plan to do to get us out of an economic catastrophe. As a viewer trying to make a choice on the best candidate for the job I don't know why that debate was even held other than to serve the interest of John McCain.

Last nights debate was an embarassment to ABC news.