Frank Rich: Shoddy! Tawdry! A Televised Train Wreck!

[BeyondGeography]

“THE crowd is turning on me,” said Charles Gibson, the ABC anchor, when the audience jeered him in the final moments of Wednesday night’s face-off between Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama.

I can’t remember a debate in which the only memorable moment was the audience’s heckling of a moderator. Then again, I can’t remember a debate that became such an instant national gag, earning reviews more appropriate to a slasher movie like “Prom Night” than a civic event held in Philadelphia’s National Constitution Center:

“Shoddy, despicable!” — The Washington Post

“A tawdry affair!” — The Boston Globe

“A televised train wreck!” — The Philadelphia Daily News

And those were the polite ones. Let’s not even go to the blogosphere.

...Ludicrous as the whole spectacle was, ABC would not have been so widely pilloried had it not tapped into a larger national discontent with news media fatuousness. The debate didn’t happen in a vacuum; it was the culmination of the orgy of press hysteria over Mr. Obama’s remarks about “bitter” small-town voters. For nearly a week, you couldn’t change channels without hearing how Mr. Obama had destroyed his campaign with this single slip at a San Francisco fund-raiser. By Wednesday night, the public was overdosing.

...In this one-size-fits-all analysis, Mr. Obama must be the new Dukakis, sure to be rejected by white guys easily manipulated by Lee Atwater-style campaigns exploiting race and class. But some voters who lived through 1988 have changed, and quite a few others are dead. In 2008, they are supplanted in part by an energized African-American electorate and the young voters of all economic strata who fueled the Obama movement that many pundits didn’t take seriously before Iowa. And that some still don’t. Cokie Roberts of ABC predicted in February that young voters probably won’t show up in November because “they never have before” and “they’ll be tired.”

However out of touch Mr. Obama is with “ordinary Americans,” many Americans, ordinary and not, have concluded that the talking heads blathering about blue-collar men, religion, guns and those incomprehensible “YouTube young people” are even more condescending and out of touch. When a Washington doyenne like Mary Matalin, freighted with jewelry, starts railing about elitists on “Meet the Press,” as she did last Sunday, it’s pure farce. It’s typical of the syndrome that the man who plays a raging populist on CNN, Lou Dobbs, dismissed Mr. Obama last week by saying “we don’t need another Ivy League-educated knucklehead.” Mr. Dobbs must know whereof he speaks, since he’s Harvard ’67.

...The most revealing moment in Wednesday’s debate was a striking example of this media-populace disconnect. In Mr. Gibson’s only passionate query of the night, he tried to strong-arm both Democrats into forgoing any increases in the capital gains tax. The capital gains tax! That’s just the priority Americans are focusing on as they lose their houses and jobs, and as gas prices reach $4 a gallon (a subject that merited only a brief mention, in a lightning round of final questions). And this in a debate that took place on the same day we learned that the top 50 hedge fund managers made a total of $29 billion in 2007, some of them by betting against the mortgage market...

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/20/opinion/20rich.html?_r=1&ref=opinion&oref=slogin

[EFerrari]

1. Tell 'em, Frank:

The most revealing moment in Wednesday’s debate was a striking example of this media-populace disconnect. In Mr. Gibson’s only passionate query of the night, he tried to strong-arm both Democrats into forgoing any increases in the capital gains tax. The capital gains tax! That’s just the priority Americans are focusing on as they lose their houses and jobs, and as gas prices reach $4 a gallon (a subject that merited only a brief mention, in a lightning round of final questions). And this in a debate that took place on the same day we learned that the top 50 hedge fund managers made a total of $29 billion in 2007, some of them by betting against the mortgage market.

[DAGDA56]

2. Did Gibson really say that? (The crowd is turning on me)...

...I went grocery shopping at the one hour mark...if so, that is his most accurate statement of the night, and an indication of what this campaign is all about. Both Mr. Gibson and Senator Clinton seem shocked that "the people" are really not on their side. What a reality check!

[Hieronymus]

3. Yes, he said it. What assholes he and George are.

[Tarheel_Dem]

5. Indeed, he did...

and he was right. ABC could never have dreamed of the backlash this is causing, and it couldn't have happened to nicer bunch of assholes.

[Arugula Latte]

8. Here is a link

http://youtube.com/watch?v=y7WaoarLZHc

(Note the nervous laughter from that little prick Stephanopoulos.)

[GreatCaesarsGhost]

10. little is right... notice that gibson was seated and george was standing

and gibson was still taller.

[Arugula Latte]

15. He is a tiny little man with a tiny little brain a tiny little soul and a tiny little

um, shoe size.

[blogslut]

4. So worth the wait

Tell it, Frank. I knew you would come through.

[ErinBerin84]

6. Mary and Cokie

I'm glad that he pointed out the sheer ridiculousness of Chanel suited Mary Matalin harping against elitism and condescension, she who thinks that the only people who want to end the war are the "loony, left wing fringe" and that "the media is driving the myth of economic problems". Cokie bothers me as well "The only reason why young women are not voting for Hillary is because they have not yet gone through the two radicalizing experiences of motherhood and trying to move up in the workplace. " Didn't Cokie also say recently "Americans want to WIN in Iraq!"

[samsingh]

29. agreed

[ooglymoogly]

32. Wait....is Cokie a pomeranian or a cocker....I once knew a

coke dealer who's name was Cokie...who is this dog anyway and why is she in the news and why would anyone give her such a nauseating name?

[progdog]

36. Cokie sounds kinda

Bitter.

[Cha]

39. I've an idea..let's send mary matalin and

dick cheney to the front lines in Iraq..see how long they wanna stay there.

[Adelante]

7. Good one

"Such defacing of American values is to be expected, I guess, from a network whose debate moderators refuse to wear flag pins."

[1776Forever]

9. WOW - Great column - I appreciated this greatly! Just sent it to David Gregory - he talked down to

Rachel Maddow when she commented on how absurd this so called debate was! I told him he should do some reading and find out the facts before he jumped to protect his fellow journalists! The REAL journalist told it like it really was!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Go Frank!!!!!!!

:yourock:

[Cha]

40. Thanks for sending it to the

mediawhore, david gregory.

[GoldieAZ49]

11. Obama is the train wreck

and it should be televised.

ABC reached over 10 million people, far more than all the cable news channels in one night.

Good for George and Charlie for pulling the covers on him. Obama's arrogance at being asked questions on his character needed to be seen.

[trumad]

12. Hillary Ho

[TexasObserver]

13. Cokie Roberts is senile.

She's a blivering fool.

[Stephanie]

18. Remember on Letterman shortly after 9/11 she turned to the audience and said

"And Bush's approval numbers are at 80%" or whatever the number was in September 2001, and she raised her hands and forced the audience to applaud. It was terrifying. She's nuts.

[stlsaxman]

37. I call her "Cokie The Clown" and that's when i'm being polite.

There was a local tv kids show here in the 60's called Corkie The Clown.

[meow mix]

14. K&R

[Jensen]

16. K&R

:kick:

[Stephanie]

17. "But some voters who lived through 1988 have changed" - and all of them have the Google

I really think that's the difference. We're not suckers any more. We have our own information system.

[Arugula Latte]

46. Shhhhh! Don't tell these insulated Washington insider pundit asshats about Teh Internets!

[EffieBlack]

51. My favorite Cokie display of arrogant insulation:

The day after the Lewinsky story first broke, Cokie appeared on NPR Morning Edition and told listeners that Bill Clinton was in some real trouble. How did she know this?

Because she "had several conversations with Democrats all over the country yesterday . . . , because, of course, Congress is not in session, and there's a true anguish on their part. They say that they are sick to their stomachs, they don't want to believe it. But there's a part of them that absolutely does believe it, because of the history . . . And it was some of the most anguished conversations I've ever had with members of Congress yesterday."(NPR Morning Edition, January 23, 1998)

So, to Cokie, having "conversations with Democrats all over the country" means talking to some Members of Congress. Why go through the trouble of actually speaking to any regular people when it's so much easier to just call up one of your buddies in Congress who can tell you what they're thinking.

And then, the following Monday, she did it again, announcing that Bill Clinton might not survive the scandal, according to her crack investigative "reporting:"

"In those conversations I was having yesterday, the possible end of the presidency was very seriously discussed by every member I talked to. That's the key. I mean, I've talked to members of Congress all over the country in the last few days, and they're just puzzled, you know. They're sitting in their districts wondering how bad this is and not really knowing. They are beginning to hear from their constituents. And they say, you know, that some people are saying, 'well, this really doesn't have anything to do with running the country.' And others are saying, 'this is one too many. We knew that, you know, we didn't sign on with an altar boy, but we did sign on with somebody that we thought would respect the White House and all of that.' And the age of the young woman in question is apparently also being talked about in the country." (NPR Morning Edition, January 26, 1998)

So, Cokie Roberts, who for some reason gets paid by NPR and ABC to ostensibly be an "analyst" actually had the nerve to publicly state that she based her analysis on the fact that this was "apparently . . . being talked about in the country" and she knows this because some Members of Congress (Who? How many of them? 1, 3, 10, 40?) told her that some of their constituents (Who? From where? How many of them?) told them that some people were bothered by the allegations and some people weren't.

Sitting in Washington chewing the fat by phone with some unidentified Senators and Congressmen and then going on the radio to tell us what they told her someone else told them is what passes for "reporting" in Cokie's world.

Ever since then, I have paid absolutely no attention to anything this woman has had to say. She's a joke.

[Arugula Latte]

52. Yep. And she has lived in the Beltway Bubble her entire life.

Her father was a Congressman, as I recall.

[tishaLA]

19. the best thing about this column is

that "regular" TV reporters sometimes--sometimes--take their lead from Rich because they see him as liberal but influential. That he has so much here to damn McCain, while keeping criticism of Obama and Clinton intact, might really help us in the media wars.

Here's hoping.

[SeattleGirl]

20. Just goes to show how freakin' lazy the M$M is anymore.

Like they say about Bush, McSame could eat a baby on live TV, and they would find a way to say it bolstered his "maverick" image.

I really hate these people.

[Cali_Democrat]

21. I LOVE this toon in the article...

[knixphan]

22. Cokie...

I want to see you in November when the youngbloods turn out.

I wanna see your face when the election's called for O.

Young people are going to make sooo many people eat their words.


GOBAMA!

[Cha]

41. I hope so..'cause we need

them like never before. Most of the Blacks know an idiot when they see one, too.

[liberalla]

23. "a larger national discontent with news media fatuousness"

" national discontent with news media "

"The unequivocally good news is that ABC’s debacle had the largest audience of any debate in this campaign. That’s a lot of viewers who are now mad as hell and won’t take it anymore."

Woo hoo! I love it! :woohoo:

[Cha]

42. That's the only way we're going to get

anywhere in our country ..is if the People really turn on the m$$$$fm en masse.

You brought a very exciting point up..thanks, liberalla.

[JBoy]

24. Great, well-written article.

[ORDem]

25. You could tell how it was going to go from the first question, that stupid one

about pledging to take the other one as VP if they lose. Moronic. And he asks it of both of them simultaneously and makes fun of them when they both hesitate to answer. Just stupid.

:dem:

[me b zola]

26. K&R

[Scurrilous]

27. K & R

:thumbsup:

[2rth2pwr]

28. In Pa., late deciders could lift Clinton

If the pattern of previous primaries and caucuses holds, the biggest procrastinators - those who make up their minds on Tuesday - will probably break for Senator Hillary Clinton. If they side with her again in Pennsylvania, it may help Clinton hold off Senator Barack Obama with a big-enough victory to save her candidacy, again.

In three polls conducted last week in Pennsylvania, which showed Clinton holding single-digit leads, 9 to 13 percent of voters said they were undecided.

Through 27 contests where exit polling on late deciders is available, Clinton has won those voters in 20.

[Barrymores Ghost]

48. Maybe you should take a look at this...

...Since it's current as of yesterday. Looks like slight reversal of trend, attitudes and fortune, doesn't it?

Oops.

[liberaldem4ever]

30. Another great column from Frank Rich K&R

:bounce: :kick:

[hvn_nbr_2]

31. People who have no capital don't care about capital gains taxes.

Gibson and the rest of the multi-millions-per-year gang should get a clue and talk to someone who doesn't belong to a country club.

[nvme]

33. The debate on ABC

It was pure horse-shit. It was offensive to the best candidates I have seen in a few election cycles. ABC seems to think America is only watching American Idol. We do! But that is for entertainment. This cycle is different, we Americans know we slept through the last 2 and it hurt us all-the more for it. This time we switched into relevant mode. ABC showed its contempt by reducing a debate into a National Enquirer event. I am surprised hillary isn't accused of letting an alien father chelsea. or Barack is it true that you are an alien communist radical muslim child molester? This will typify our debates if we don't shout it down.

[ooglymoogly]

34. Love this post...thanx kr

[Petey Wheatie]

35. Maybe Rich'll write a nasty letter to the Prez of Iran when HE'S mean and unfair to Obama too. lol

[Cha]

44. Another bitter hilary,

Bosnian Sniper Liar, supporter.

[Petey Wheatie]

47. "God Damn America" hoper. n/t

[Cha]

38. Capital Gains Tax Question=A$$hole

mediawhore m$$$fm. gibson and his bosses were just dying to know the answer to that shit.

[WinkyDink]

43. I am really tired of the "Obama = Dukais = LOSER" theme. Tweety was all over this one, too.

[Cha]

45. Then we know that tweety is in a windsuck

machine 'cause he freakin' knows better than that. He's taking orders from the top who are :scared: outta their gucci loafers over Obama winning.

[EffieBlack]

54. A year ago, Matthews was INSISTING that it would be Giuliani v. Clinton

Now that Giuliani has proven to be the ultimate political dud, Matthews is trying to save what's left of his reputation by hyping Hillary in hopes that he can at least claim to have been partially correct in his prognostication. If Obama gets the nomination, Matthews' will have a difficult time convincing anyone that he knows what he's talking about - although, of course, that won't stop him from bloviating just as much in the future.

[myrna minx]

49. K&R n/t

[mcollier]

50. Join the Movement For Change

If you don't know what that means;

Please read: http://www.barackobama.com/pdf/ObamaBlueprintForChange.pdf


The plan the change Washington... The special interest hate this plan, and that is why the media is telling you not to consider Obama....

However, hard working Americans who have done their homework love this plan...

[Tribetime]

53. great post K&R