After listening to the questions asked by Brian Williams in South Carolina at the first debate of announced Democratic presidential contenders, one has to wonder how much worse the moderation would have been if it had been on the Fox Network.
There was hardly an inane smear, knock, superficial or unfair attack made against any of these candidates that Williams did not go OUT of his way to highlight or demand that they defend themselves against. We had the price of haircuts, misquotes about positions on Palestine, ties to Walmart, not to mention an entire segment on Giuliani's despicable "die under Democrats" rhetoric from yesterday, instantly elevated to the status of accepted mainstream gospel and framed as such. If most of the questions had been prefaced with the words "Karl Rove says" their slant could not have been more obvious. Even the questions selected from viewer emails seemed to be selected with that criteria in mind.
When Williams was not doing that he left no stone unturned trying to dredge up a virtual laundry list of every possible divisive wedge issue he could work in, positions on abortion, guns, illegal immigration, and even the confederate flag. The few other actual issues touched on were exploited as an opportunity to hurl other accusations, for example on the health care issue one of stealth tax raising intentions. The energy issue he tried to turn into an Al Gore, how dare you own a light bulb witch hunt, and so on.
And in his grandstand play of the night Williams painted a grim scenario of two American cities wiped out by Al Qaeda and demanded to know how each of these candidates would retaliate. The question itself was custom designed to drive fear into the heart of what deserved to be a thoughtful debate on the issues, and to substitute blind ignorant rage for sound policy. It had to be TWO cities of course because we've ALREADY lost one and a half cities under George Bush. The question begged the answer of what kind of revenge would you take, as if revenge were a policy goal. How fitting from the mouthpiece of a company in the nuclear weapons business.
To their credit each of the candidates demonstrated in turn that they are infinitely more qualified to be president of the United States than Bush ever was, and managed for most part to say what they wanted to say, as opposed to what Williams was trying to bait them into saying. We only wish one of them had called him out directly on the slant of the questions, especially the Giuliani smear.
Williams made one huge mistake, trying to embarrass Kucinich about his Cheney impeachment stance, and Kucinich hit it out of the park with some of the best passion we've heard from him yet. Likewise with Gravel, where Williams practically chortled at the chance to pick a fight on stage between the candidates, but instead gave Gravel his own moment to shine as an uncompromising antiwar choice.
What we need to do is take the debates out of the hands of right wing spin kings and get some moderators who aren't so bent on warping the whole affair. It's hard to imagine as long as self-interested corporations are the sponsors. But at least tonight our candidates were able to hold their own.
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We the people have to realize that NBC is part of the huge corporate industrial complex. The questions asked are to receive a response that the corporate media wants you to hear. I think that there is a lot of issues that any leader will have to deal with, but I want a leader who will take the country back. None of this is going to happen over night, but we have to stay on target to make sure what has happened in the last 30 years doesn't happen again. Corporations have taken over our government and it is time for us to take it back
Any one of the candidates last night would be an improvement over what we have now.
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Ron McCallie (0 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 74 comments) on Friday, Apr 27, 2007 at 7:49:34 PM
Moderator Hurls Spitballs in First Democrat Debate
ROFLMAO! OMG was that a debate? Hot Dang I thought it was another idiotic phony NBC/MSNBC Pretty Boy Village Idiot Brian Williams Photo Op as I honestly cannot stand that arrogant smirking knowitall pompous arse Brian Williams,and he is why I stopped watching NBC news! Williams will never be another Tom Brokaw face it NBC/MSNBC as Williams seems to think his job is act like the pompus arse punk he is and lord it over everyone else just like that phony little punk did when he hosted this pathetic excuse for a debate and if anyone elsse agrees with me then please send NBC/MSNBC a real nasty E-mail about it, will you? So my tv is lucky I didnot throw my chair thru the screen as mad as that arrogant punk Williams made me! Face it Brian Williams Your No Tom Brokaw And You Brian SUCK Big Time! Memo To NBC/MSNBC get a Moderator for your bebates not a phony punk like Brian Williams or go out of business you pathetic losers!
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Ralph (0 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 74 comments) on Saturday, Apr 28, 2007 at 7:54:31 PM
Brian Williams lost me when he was interviewed about the exit polls in 2004, and he said that he felt that they should be done away with altogether. That was even before I learned that he wrote fan letters to Nixon when he was a kid. Sort of reminds me of that kid from Texas who can name all the U.S. presidents and vice-presidents--you remember him--Dubya took him along on the Social Security Privitization tour a couple of years ago.
Williams is a pompous skid-mark who isn't fit to shine Brokaw's shoes. NBC/GE should have gotten Brokaw to moderate. I wouldn't hold my breath, though.
My favorite choices would be Walter Cronkite and Jim Lehrer, though. Williams isn't fit to shine THEIR shoes, either!
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Laur (0 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 22 comments) on Saturday, Apr 28, 2007 at 10:31:13 PM
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