The news media is broken

I went to bed last night after watching the debate, actually after tuning in to Keith Olbermann to see a bit of analysis about the debate.

I was already disgusted at the quality of the questions by Charles Gibson and George Stephanopolous. They dwelt on the petty and trivial minor issues discovered by bloggers and inflamed by a media who don't know how to address important issues and maintain an audience. I was furious at the questions chosen by Pennsylvania voters who seem obsessed with nonsense like Barack Obama's flag pin and Hillary Clinton's exaggerations about Bosnia. I was appalled that Stephanopolous followed the wing of right-wing bloviators and questioned Obama about a 60's radical with whom he had a very tenuous relationship, and then Clinton amplified the ridiculous inference.

And after determining that Clinton was being as negative as she could be while hoping not to alienate the last of her supporters, and that Obama handled the nonsense with as much dignity as he could muster, I heard NBC Political director Chuck Todd tell Olbermann that Obama had been pummeled and appeared "shaken." I couldn't believe my ears about a debate I had just watched myself.



And if you think I'm the only American disgusted with the quality of the questions delivered by Gibson and Stephanopolous you can begin by considering that the audience at the debate booed Gibson, and that many commentators are as furious as I am, including Greg Mitchell, Colin McEnroe, Josh Marshall, Marty Kaplan, Greg Sargent, Tom Shales, Niall Strange and Andrew Sullivan.

And then there are the nearly 13,000 people who commented directly to ABC.

Kucinich makes the most sense

Hillary was defensive. Barack peddled softly. And our friend Chris Dodd can't escape learning how to speak in a political household.

But Dennis Kucinich speaks plainly, clearly, truthfully. And the crowd loves it.

Check out this Kuchinich clip at Raw Story.

It's what wrong with America, Chris

Now even the media is beginning to recognize its complicity in the dumbing down of the populace. Maybe if Dodd made his exit from the limo without underpants, he'd get the same treatment as Paris. Maybe not.