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Full Review
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Trivia and biased questions dominate Democrats’ debate
ACTION:
Ask ABC why debate moderators George Stephanopoulos and Charles Gibson so often derailed the debate away from issues of concern to voters and, in a debate that was supposed to help Democratic voters choose their party’s candidate, framed so many questions from a right wing perspective.
CONTACT:
ABC News
Email: netaudr@abc.com
212-456-7777
The ABC sponsored Democratic debate in Philadelphia on April 16 emphasized trivial matters of little concern to voters, while the actual policy questions were often based on misleading right-wing spin.
During the first half of the debate, ABC moderators George Stephanopoulos and Charles Gibson avoided any mention of policy issues. As the Los Angeles Times noted (4/17/08), “With the moderators and Clinton raising assorted questions about Obama’s past for the first half of the debate, issues received relatively short shrift. Not until 50 minutes in was a policy issue– Iraq–asked about by the moderators.”
The trivial line of questioning touched on well-worn campaign non-issues: Clinton’s gaffe about Bosnia, Obama’s recent characterizations about “bitter” small-town voters, the rhetoric of his former pastor Rev. Jeremiah Wright, and the fact that Obama rarely wears an American flag pin on his lapel. (This is not the first time ABC has seemed unusually interested in this distraction–see FAIR Media Advisory, 10/10/07.)
Perhaps the most irrelevant line of questioning came when Stephanopoulos asked about Obama’s contacts with University of Illinois at Chicago professor William Ayers, who was once a member of the radical Weather Underground group. Obama’s “ties” to Ayers have been an obsession of Fox News host Sean Hannity, who reportedly pressed Stephanopoulos to ask about Ayers at the debate (Salon.com, 4/17/08; MSNBC 4/16/08).
Framing the question as a “follow up” on “the general theme of patriotism,” Stephanopoulos challenged Obama to “explain to Democrats why it won’t be a problem,” given that Ayers had never apologized for the bombings the group carried out in the 1970s. “In fact,” said Stephanopoulos, “on 9/11 he was quoted in the New York Times saying, ‘I don’t regret setting bombs; I feel we didn’t do enough.’” (Actually, that quote appeared in the Times on September 11, 2001; it was not, as Stephanopoulos seemed to imply, made on the day of the attacks.)
But even when the questions turned to issues of actual substance, things hardly improved. It was not until a full three quarters of an hour into the debate that the candidates were asked the question about what Stephanopoulos
acknowledged was “the No. 1 issue on Americans’ minds”– the
economy.
Stephanopoulos’ first question to Clinton, though, was clearly pitched from the right:
“Can you make an absolute, read-my-lips pledge that there will be no tax increases of any kind for anyone earning under $200,000 a year? And if the economy is as weak a year from now as it is today, will you persist in your plans to roll back President Bush’s tax cuts for wealthier Americans?”
The assumption would seem to be that there’s something economically or politically dangerous about raising taxes, particularly on the wealthy. Charles Gibson picked up on that theme, pressing Obama about his plan to raise capital gains tax rates to levels of the early 1990s—a position that struck Gibson as bizarre, since lowering these taxes increases government revenue:
“In each instance, when the rate dropped, revenues from the tax increased. The government took in more money. And in the 1980s, when the tax was increased to 28 percent, the revenues went down. So why raise it at all, especially given the fact that 100 million people in this country own stock and would be affected?”
This question rests on two false assumptions. The capital gains tax is paid by a small percentage of the population. As Citizens for Tax Justice pointed out (3/16/06), “The wealthiest 10 percent of taxpayers enjoyed 90 percent of the capital gains eligible for this special tax break.” Gibson’s reference to the 100 million Americans who own stock is irrelevant, since this tax is applied to the sales of stocks and real estate—not the act of having a retirement account.
Gibson’s other point–”History shows that when you drop the capital gains tax, the revenues go up”–might be popular in certain conservative circles, but the evidence to support it is thin. As the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities pointed out (7/12/07), there is little causal relationship between the capital gains tax cuts and increased federal tax revenue. Economist Jason Furman of the Brookings Institute pointed out the the “Joint Committee on Taxation and Treasury both score raising capital gains taxes as raising revenues” (New Republic, 4/16/08).
In addition, both candidates were pressed by Stephanopoulos about whether they would “treat an Iranian attack on Israel as if it were an attack on the United States.” Stephanopoulos opened this question with a flagrantly misleading statement, saying to Obama: “Iran continues to pursue a nuclear option. Those weapons, if they got them, would probably pose the greatest threat to Israel.” According to the latest National Intelligence Estimate, Iran discontinued its alleged nuclear weapons program in 2003.
Pundits often justify their decision to exclude “second-tier” candidates from debates on the grounds that they distract attention away from the real issues. If presenting a distraction from the real issues is really the problem, perhaps moderators such as Stephanopoulos and Gibson should seriously think of excusing themselves from future debates.
ACTION:
Ask ABC why debate moderators George Stephanopoulos and Charles Gibson so often derailed the debate away from issues of concern to voters and, in a debate that was supposed to help Democratic voters choose their party’s candidate, framed so many questions from a right wing perspective.
CONTACT:
ABC News
Email: netaudr@abc.com
212-456-7777
BlogPAC just sent out an email asking people to contact George Stephanapoulos and Charlie Gibson to explain their substance free moderation. You can send an email here.
Moveon also has a petition, which you can sign here.
And finally, Obama spoke out against the debate in a town hall meeting.
Apparently, the company that produced Path to 9/11 to tarnish Bill and Hillary Clinton and that worked to undermine labor and screenwriters is also shitting on Obama. Weird!
Christopher Arellano and Yosi Sergant both gained 61 votes in the 31st Congressional District Obama Caucus and the tie was broken by a coin toss.
Congratulations Chris Arellano the winner of the coin toss. I believe there were 167 total votes and John Gallogly showed a strong third place finish.
We want to run this Impeachment Ad on Tuesday, April 29 in Roll Call, the Capitol Hill paper ALL members of Congress and their staffs read avidly.
Impeachment NOW will stop these high-crime precedents—cold!!
This 1/4th page ad emphasizes “Presidential Precedents” to Congress. But it
will cost $3,715 to appear in Roll Call. We need contribution NOW to cover
that cost so your Congressional Representative will see it on Tuesday, April 29.
Make your contribution two ways:
To give online send donation through Paypal to this email address: DemocracyforOregon@gmail.com
To give by check, make it payable to
Democracy for Oregon
6428 SE 15th Avenue
Portland, OR 97202.
The ad answers House Speaker Pelosi’s argument—echoed by many House
members (perhaps your Representative)—that President Bush and
Vice President Cheney will be out of office by January 30 “so why bother with
impeachment?”
If House members don’t “bother” with impeachment, they are permitting all the “high-crime precedents” that Nixon and Bush and Cheney have put in place to be used by future presidents. And those “Presidential Precedents” will nullify Congress, overthrow the Constitution and democracy—and set up a “unitary executive” dictatorship.
“We the People” National Coalition for Impeachment
For More Information, Click HERE
Today, police arrested more than 30 people “who blocked entrances at the Internal Revenue Service building” as “part of a day of protests to mark the fifth anniversary of the U.S. invasion of Iraq.” Demonstrators also converged in Miami and San Francisco, and other cities across the country.
Tallahassee anti-war activists dropped banners in several locations today to mark the fifth anniversary of the Iraq Occupation. Above is a shot of one on an overpass on I-10.
Later this evening there will be a candlelight procession around Lake Ella on N. Monroe St.
Hundeds are expected to attend.
Alternet:
Kelly Dougherty, the former sergeant who is the executive director of Iraq Veterans Against the War (IVAW), announced the start today of the Winter Soldier: Iraq and Afghanistan investigation into the United States’ conduct of its wars, featuring testimony of IVAW soldiers.
Dougherty promised that “No longer will public debate on the Global War on Terror be framed solely by politicians and pundits. IVAW will use the ongoing Winter Soldier project to spread awareness of G.I. resistance among veterans and active duty troops and build strategic alliances … to broaden and strengthen our strategy to end the Iraq occupation.” The Winter Soldiers at IVAW are not relying on the mainstream media which is good because so far major news media have ignored the event.
“Every minute of testimony will be broadcast live and will be available to watch in an online on-demand library,” said Dougherty. The pro-war lobby, including Eagles Up, the Gathering of Eagles, Move America Forward, Free Republic and commentator Michelle Malkin, are condemning and protesting IVAW’s Winter Soldier hearings.
The major Democratic Party-aligned peace groups with multi-million dollar budgets, such as MoveOn and Americans Against Escalation in Iraq, like the mainstream news media, have also ignored the Winter Soldier event.
John Stauber founded the non-profit, non-partisan Center for Media & Democracy and its newsmagazine PR Watch in 1993 in Madison, Wisconsin.
