A Letter to ABC

[bhikkhu]

Here is the text of an email I sent to each news division:

I am just writing to let you know that I found the big “debate” of this evening to be a despicable farce, and the conduct of your moderators entirely unprofessional and disrespectful. If this conduct were required by the interests of good journalism for the benefit of the public at large it would perhaps be justified. But having watched, I am left with nothing. A sour taste in my mouth. An anger against the whole process which takes public servants and lays them to waste by whatever means necessary. Set the moderators against them, set them against each other, set the public against them; the guide seems to be “by any means necessary generate ratings”, as it is difficult to see that any other purpose was served.
I cannot say that I expect awe and deference before government, having lived long enough to see many hard fought elections and many administrations come and go. But I have never been so disappointed in the media of this country. The last debate in this race for the presidential nomination was under your watch, and you turned it into a vicious farce. It should have been an education on the issues, and an education on government and character, as previous debates over the years have been. Both candidates were ready to do so – they are well spoken, educated and principled, having devoted their lives to the purpose of serving their country, and they were aware of the audience of young and old here and around the world. This was incredibly important, and you made it a useless farce. You and your moderators should be ashamed.

So what can a person do about this sort of thing? Personally, I think the bile you displayed this evening, can only be answered by my exit from your customer base. That is, I will not watch another program you produce or provide on your network, ever. You have gained yourself a determined and vocal detractor, and it is hard to conceive of anything you could do to reverse matters.

If ten years down the road your network lays in bankrupt ruins, having slowly shrunk to nothing, bleeding cash all the way, that will satisfy me. I will be happy to explain to my daughters exactly the character you demonstrated, and the inevitable consequences of bad character.

That all I have to say.
(...)

For what it is worth.

Their email links are here: http://abcnews.go.com/Site/page?id=3068843

[FrenchieCat]

1. You are so past bitter, and so am I.....

They just don't realize that we have now past bitter and have gone on to Mad as hell!

[BadgerKid]

2. Nice read.

K&R. Thank you. Much the same could be said concerning the past seven years of you-know-what.

[depakid]

3. I suspect that they're going to get a lot of letters like this

In fact, I'm thinking about composing one myself about this sorry spectacle.

[bhikkhu]

4. I hope it takes weeks to go through them all, myself.

I am old enough to remember when journalists and news programs had respect and integrity, and this is seriously a new low. It is one thing for the media to collectively torpedo or f*k w/some foreign country's government (obnoxious enough - but that is another letter), but to screw over your own as if you were so high above them...don't get me started again...

[stillcool]

5. Good one!

I sent one earlier, but I think tomorrow I will email a more thoughtful response. I didn't know there was more than one email addy.

[bhikkhu]

7. I don't know who gets what

but enough response and a critical mass is reached, I think. I really hope no news organization does this sort of things again, rather than it just goes by and becomes the norm.

[woolldog]

6. well done bikkhu. well done.

[kentuck]

8. They certainly showed that they have an agenda...

Whatever it is?

[SoonerPride]

9. Bravo!

Kick and rec