The Pennsylvania debate

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Here is an example of very bad journalism on a very high level. But if you look at it from another angle you might say that ABC did the last Democratic debate look so irrelevant on purpose.

How Much Did You Loathe ABC's Debate Coverage?

The politics of pile-on is going on over at ABC as everybody from Obama-friendly MoveOn to a wide array of TV critics are ripping Wednesday's co-moderators Charlie Gibson and George Stephanopoulos for offering "shoddy, despicable performances" in the words of the Washington Post's Tom Shales.

The Philly Daily News called it "a train wreck," and Andrew Sullivan, blogging for The Atlantic, called it "one of the worst media performances I can remember - petty, shallow, process-obsessed, trivial where substantive, and utterly divorced from the actual issues that Americans want to talk about." Greg Mitchell in Editor and Publisher called it "the most embarrassing performance by the media in a major presidential debate in years." And so on.

Why the hate? Oh, start with the near policy-question-less first hour. If the word "Iraq" was mentioned before the 53-minute mark, it must have been while I was on an (off-duty) beer run. There was bupkis about the economy. The rest of the night wasn't much better, as the Democrats best-and-brightest-and-survivingest candidates were quizzed about the trivialities of politics like flag pins and Bosnia snipers. It was a regular Gaffe Riot.

Did you expect more? From the intro "Clinton versus Obama: One on One" it was billed like a pay-per-view prizefight. Plus, any regular viewer of Stuffinenvelopes' Sunday morning chatfest knows that he's all about the political questions. Remember, kids, he was the Clinton Administration's face to the national media. He's all about the tit-for-tat, inside-the-Beltway minutiae that NOBODY trying to get a college loan or figure out how to keep their home or is worried about the skyrocketing cost of food CARES ABOUT.

So the backlash -- and the counter-backlash, of course -- has begun. MoveOn is starting a petition of loathing that they will send to ABC and other media outlets.

Not everybody hated it, though. Lynn Sweet from the Chicago Sun-Times thought it was about time Obama got a good grilling. Same for David Brooks from the NYT. And Hillary said she thinks the Obama crew should stop whining about the questions. Then again, Clinton has whined about the media before.

So will these protests et al have any effect on ABC or any other network?

Here's a key to your answer: ABC is crowing about their ratings -- it was the most-watched debate of the 2008 cycle, with 10.7 million people watching. According to their flaks: "For the 8-10 p.m. time period, this marks ABC's best total viewing audience since 11/28/07, its largest adult 18-49 rating since 2/27/08, and its best adult 25-54 rating since 1/9/08."

Your thoughts?