Friday, April 18, 2008

Was The Debate A Public Service or Simply Television Programming?

MEDIA CRITICS HAVE come down hard on ABC for their questions asked during Wednesday's Democratic debate. The 90-minute debate featured the first 45 minutes focusing on minor controversies rather than issues.

Debate hosts Charlie Gibson and George Stephanopoulos (a former Bill Clinton senior advisor) have stood by their line of questioning, which focused on issues like Barrack Obama not wearing a flag pin, and Hillary Clinton lying about coming under sniper fire in Bosnia.

Some people have accused ABC of trying to put on exciting programming rather than provide a public service (the day after the debate, ABC bragged that 10.7 million people watched).

Longtime 60 Minutes producer Don Hewitt, who also produced the 1960 debate between Kennedy and Nixon, acknowledged to the New York Times that there was a great deal of show biz and appealing to the audience in the debate.

"When you’re in television," he said, "that’s your job."

Is there anything wrong with that?

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

That's your job -- when you're producing 24 or CSI or some show like this. I thought the debate was terrible. And after reading articles I noticed that no one really disagreed with me.
Shouldn't we be voting for a person who is the most qualified/most experienced/who has the ideas who agree with? Instead of whoever is the more charasmatic speaker or who exergerates her time in Bosnia. As much as ABC screwed this one up, most people are voting for extracurricular's and not the real reasons they should be voting for.

Anonymous said...

at this point in the game, the most important issues should have been on the top of the list. Healthcare, taxes and the war not whether or not obama's choice of accessories makes him less of an american than clinton. that shit was silly and yes that is what i thought about that entire line of questioning....it was shit!!! i am 23 years old, sure i am a young voter but that doesnt mean that all i want to watch on tv is bickering and he said she said. if i wanted that i know what shows i can watch for that. i want clear consise information and that is what i want when deciding my presidnetial elect.