ABC Plants Its Flag

Sadly, we already used the hysterical Eddie Izzard "Flag" routine video recently, in another post.

And there was a great video up, briefly, yesterday, called "In Memoriam - George Stephanopoulos", mocking the diminutive politico/news reader and, as we described him the other day, the "former staff member of the husband of one of the participants in this so-called debate", in the same production style as on his weekly Sunday morning thingy (it was "This video has been removed by the user." which means either YouTube gave him shit, or ABC gave him shit ... Likely, both).

Which brings us to today, and, if the ABC suits thought, hey, it's Friday ... Almost the weekend ... The worst is behind us ... Well, they had a little surprise.

From Josh Marshall's "Hmmm";

Remember that woman from the debate last night who the moderators showed videotape of asking whether Barack Obama "believes in the flag"? Her name is Nash McCabe.

I remember thinking it was sort of odd to have a couple one-off uses of ordinary voter questions when it didn't really seem like it was part of the format. But I was too distracted by the general inanity of the debate to focus on this issue too closely.

Well, it turns out TPM Reader JL did give it some thought. And he came up with something very interesting (see JL's post at the DrexelDems blog). He did a little googling and found out Nash is pretty popular with the traveling press now in Pennsylvania. It turns out McCabe was featured in an April 4th story in the Times which begins like this ..."

What an incredible coincidence!

What an incredible stroke of unbelievable good luck?

Shoot, Norville Barnes, a recipient of a boatload of dumb, good luck as any, pales in comparison into the pot-o-gold ABC stumbled upon.

This woman, Nash McCabe, just happened to be out there ... Just happened to live in Latrobe, PA ... And an ABC producer, wandering around the vast state, looking for the one voice, the one golden voice, who could epitomize the burning issue, that buzzed about item at every dinner table, the linch pin to this years' election ...

Who could ask Barack Obama about the Lapel Flag Pin?

Where was this All-American John or Jane Doe?

Who could ask;

Senator Obama, I have a question, and I want to know if you believe in the American flag. I am not questioning your patriotism, but all our servicemen, policemen and EMS wear the flag. I want to know why you don't.

The always insightful and entertaining Attytood had puzzlement, as well;

As I watched her question, what I wondered -- and I imagine many other viewers wondered as well -- was where on earth did ABC find this representative of my home state. As a journalist, I kind of assumed that ABC sent a film crew to western Pa., and then culled the most provocative questions from the people that they found. Silly me. In fact, ABC News found Nash McCabe the old-fashioned way -- they read about her, and her thing with the American flag, in the New York Times earlier this month:

LATROBE, Pa. — Ask whom she might vote for in the coming presidential primary election and Nash McCabe, 52, seems almost relieved to be able to unpack the dossier she has been collecting in her head.

It is not about whom she likes, but more a bill of particulars about why she cannot vote for Senator Barack Obama of Illinois.

“How can I vote for a president who won’t wear a flag pin?” Mrs. McCabe, a recently unemployed clerk typist, said in a booth at the Valley Dairy luncheonette in this quiet, small city in western Pennsylvania.

Greg Sargent, of TPM Election Central interviewed Stephanopoulos the other day;

In an interview with me moments ago, Stephanopoulos strongly defended his handling of the debate. He dismissed criticism that it had focused too heavily on "gotcha" questions, arguing that they had gone to the heart of the "electability" that, he said, is forefront in the minds of voters evaluating the two Dems.

Forefront in the minds of voters ...

The NYT interview with Nash McCabe was published back on January 4th ... Meaning it was taken a day, or more before that ...

That's over three-months ago!

From Attytood again;

So Nash McCabe wasn't located at random at all. Instead, someone at ABC News decided that they wanted to go after Obama on the patriotism issue, and they actively sought a Pennsylvanian who they knew wanted to bring it up. I assume they thought it would sound better if "a typical voter" asked the question instead of Charlie Gibson. "You see, we're only raising the issue the voters really care about," they can claim.

I have to wonder, if off-air (we already know what he did on-air), Sean Hannity coached Stephanopoulos to beat down Obama on the Lapel Flag Pin as well ...


It's 11PM, Do You Know Where Your Lapel Flag Pin Is? Links

D-Mac: Sen. Obama, Are You The Devil?

Steve Benen: About that flag-pin question…

Digby: Tiddly Winks

dday: We're marching on ABC/Disney in Burbank today - armed with flag pins!

The Nation: Journalists Slam ABC Debate Tactics; In an open letter to ABC, journalists and media analysts condemn the network's poor handling of the April 16 Democratic presidential debate

Charlie and George Go To A Debate ...

Just a little follow-up on the debate last evening ...

Charlie and George ...

Not quite in the same league, but, after the outrage (and disappointment) an equal amount of laughs could be had, as if the debate was presented as a corporate, white-collar version of "Harold & Kumar Go to White Castle".

Which has me thinking; How did ABC miss it?

They were in Philadelphia ... They had two-hours to play with ... It would be only 1.6 miles (approximately 8-minutes) to travel from the National Constitution Center... If they didn't want to pack that time with commercials, they could have let the off-screen, voice-from-the-heavens, riff some more on the Constitution

To really cap off their tabloid, junk, "Gotcha" debate-producing/debate-moderation-strategy, they could have taken Barack Obama to Gino's Steaks and have him order a cheesesteak, using quick-cut close-ups, overhead shots, maybe even have a camera from the POV of the grill ... A little tune softly in the background, building up the drama, putting the pressure on Obama to order it the correct way (and in English) ...

Maybe cut to Hillary, or use a double-screen shot, so we can hear her tell the audience of the great cheesesteaks subs her grandfather used to make (including shooting the cow, with his second-amendment-granted-right-to-own-a-gun), and how it's a tradition and her grandfather was never bitter about making cheesesteaks subs ...Then a quick cut to Hillary eating a cheesesteak sub, washing it done with shots and beer ...

And then, George Stephanopolous will ask a question, given to him by Sean Hannity, or some other dittohead, righwingnut, if Obama likes the same cheese on his cheesesteaks that William Ayers likes ... Didn't he and William Ayers share a cheesesteak once, or both order and eat cheesesteaks at the same place?

Then, the MSM, and the Right Wing Freak Show, can start a whole new meme, about Obama, still being an elitist, but now trying fake working-class roots, of being a brown-bagging-lunch-carrying common man, question the veracity if he's ever eaten a cheesesteak, or that he likes to put French cheeses on it, maybe even a little arugla.

Hillary will jump on it too, saying that she has the experience to handle a cheesesteak, that she's dealt with, and eaten, all the cheesesteaks thrown her way for the past 16-years, and that, obviously, Obama isn't ready to handle a chessesteak ...

Hillary could get up at 3AM and make a perfect cheesesteak, Obama couldn't...

And, during the commercial breaks, ABC, instead of the Constitution, will have that off-screen, voice-from-the-heavens give the history of, and recipes to ... Cheesesteaks!

Hmmm ... I think I'll stop here ... Why give ABC a free gameplan ...

Okay, pretty absurd, but, in reality, not too far off the reservation on how the debate played out last evening (you can go to my bleary-eyed-written-post "Boy, And We Thought Russert and Williams Sucked") for more 411 on this fiasco.

And if you think this is harsh, or off-the-mark, the World Wide Web and Blogosphere is bursting with similar and comparable disgust.

As we noted last evening, it was a Leonard Pinth Garnell-type night, all the way.

Perhaps the best, the winner for title-and-post goes to Robert Elisberg, over on The Huffington Post, with his "What If ABC Held a Debate, but Forgot to Show Up?";

This was topflight journalism at its worst. This was ABC's old, flimsy history with threadbare sizzle packaged as news. It was a tabloid debate with tabloid questions. Matt Drudge come to life on a respectable stage. From what I subsequently discovered, they actually, eventually got around to real issues -- after over an hour. But watching it for a mere 45 minutes made me feel almost seedy. I wanted to shower to get the smarm off. I love news, I admire professional journalists, I cherish the Mainstream Media, even when they flounder, because it is the core of democracy. But this was embarrassing. This was pathetic. This was just a cheesy press conference with cheesy questions.

A tie, or by-a-hair, second, was Will Bunch, on his Atttytood blog, "An open letter to Charlie Gibson and George Stephanapoulos";

With your performance tonight -- your focus on issues that were at best trivial wastes of valuable airtime and at worst restatements of right-wing falsehoods, punctuated by inane "issue" questions that in no way resembled the real world concerns of American voters -- you disgraced my profession of journalism, and, by association, me and a lot of hard-working colleagues who do still try to ferret out the truth, rather than worry about who can give us the best deal on our capital gains taxes.

But I'm not ready to make nice. What I just watched was an outrage. As a journalist, you appeared to confirm all of the worst qualities that cause people to hold our profession in such low esteem, especially your obsession with cornering the candidates with lame "trick" questions and your complete lack of interest or concern about substance -- or about the American people, or the state of our nation. You embarrassed some good people who work at ABC News -- for example, the journalists who worked hard to break this story just last week -- and you embarrassed yourselves. The millions of people who watched the debate were embarrassed, too -- at the state of our political discourse, and what it has finally become, at long last.

And this morning, Tom Shales, television critic of the Washington Post, rings in with "In Pa. Debate, The Clear Loser Is ABC";

When Barack Obama met Hillary Clinton for another televised Democratic candidates' debate last night, it was more than a step forward in the 2008 presidential election. It was another step downward for network news -- in particular ABC News, which hosted the debate from Philadelphia and whose usually dependable anchors, Charlie Gibson and George Stephanopoulos, turned in shoddy, despicable performances.

For the first 52 minutes of the two-hour, commercial-crammed show, Gibson and Stephanopoulos dwelled entirely on specious and gossipy trivia that already has been hashed and rehashed, in the hope of getting the candidates to claw at one another over disputes that are no longer news. Some were barely news to begin with.

At the end, Gibson pompously thanked the candidates -- or was he really patting himself on the back? -- for "what I think has been a fascinating debate." He's entitled to his opinion, but the most fascinating aspect was waiting to see how low he and Stephanopoulos would go, and then being appalled at the answer.

Also making its way into the discussion this morning is the wistful longing of debates past.

Libby, over on Newhoggers, harks "It's time to bring back the League of Women Voters or some neutral entity, whose agenda has nothing to do with ratings and promoting their overpaid media stars, to run these events again" and Marty Kaplan, on The Huffington Post reaches for the same, begging "Would someone please get the networks out of the presidential debate business? ... But I do blame the candidates, the campaigns and the parties for being complicit with the corporate politainment circus. The first ten people in the phone book could do a better job of asking candidates questions that voters care about."

And, perhaps the best, head-slapping, suggestion, comes from Markos, on his Daily Kos;

"I honestly don't understand why Democrats haven't learned to ignore the bullshit substance-less questions and simply say, "Okay, that's a dumb question. Let's talk about something people care about, like the housing crisis."

Just bypass the idiotic questioners and talk about the things that the Democratic primary electorate actually want to talk about.

Trust me, they'll get brownie points, and the idiot questioners will look like idiots in the process."

Last nights' dredge should put a bullet in any more Democratic debates, since the primary is nearly over, so we get a respite, of sorts.

Just enough time, maybe, to unremember this fiasco, and to start dreading the General Election debates


More Links!

Barry Crimmins: The ABC/HUAC Democratic Inquisition

Think Progress - AUDIO: Hannity Feeds Stephanopoulos Debate Question On Weather Underground

Attaturk/Firedoglake: On reflection

Lynn Sweet: Obama's toughest grilling to date at Thursday debate. William Ayers becomes a factor

Steve Benen: Worst. Debate. Ever

Greg Mitchell - Clinton-Obama Debate: ABC Decides Top Issues Facing Americans Are Gaffes, Flag Pins and '60s Radicals

Boy, And We Thought Russert and Williams Sucked

Boy, and we thought Russert and Williams sucked.

As I watched the debate last evening, I realized it wasn't a debate.

At least that wasn't the main event.

What we had, I think, was an ABC-produced infomercial on the U.S. Constitution.

That voice-from-the-heavens, off-screen, intoning on the various amendments of the Constitution, with the fancy-dancy graphics.

It played on like a bizzaro-world Hooked-On-Phonics, having a hard-on for David McCullough.

Apparently, to keep the audience from snoozing, or running over to another channel, they intercut this prime-time civic lesson with moments of two, poorly-prepared debate moderators (one who - God, and this is one of our major media companies? - was a former staff member of the husband of one of the participants in this so-called debate and, for Godsakes, what the fuck was he doing on it? Ever hear of "conflict-of-interest" ABC? Or, even, cutting you some unwarranted slack, "the appearance of a conflict-of-interest?) running through a dated checklist, acting the whole time like two little smarty-pants

With the War in Iraq going south, troops in Afghanistan, our economy melting down like a popsicle, sitting on a car dashboard, at high noon in mid-July, and, the heart-stopping revelations - just last week - and broken by - guess who - ABC News - that torture of prisoners was planned, in detail, by senior and cabinet members, inside the White House, and with the knowledge and approval of The Commander Guy, how did these two mannequin-brained television news readers handle themselves?

They spent, nearly the first hour of this so-called debate on ...

Drum roll, please ...

1. Barack Obama's "Bitter" remarks last week (and, By George, even if the voters aren't listening, we, the media are going to make this as big an issue as we possibly can).

2. Barack Obama's "Minister" (settled, "stick-a-fork-in-it-it's-done", oh, about a month ago)

3. Obama and the Lapel Flag Pin Bullshit (Apparently, they didn't want to check, to see if he had holes in his socks too; Somebody needs to research if the Manufactured News Story Association is collecting royalties everytime this comes up)

4. Hillary Clinton's Excellent Bosnia Adventure (Beaten to death and left by the side of the road to die off about, oh, 2.5-weeks ago)

Oh, yeah, and thanks to the guy, the former staff member of the husband of one of the participants in the so-called debate, who sandbagged a topic at the behest of a Fox News Nitwit, so that Obama will probably see a few headlines soon, that he's harboring 1960's radicals in his basement.

It would seem that Charlie Gibson can't anchor the evening news broadcast and be a debate moderator in the same evening.

And George Stephanopolous?

Must be news to the ABC suits that he's taking tips from Fox News Nitwits

For a punishment, for his dreadful work this evening, those ABC suits should work out a deal, loaning and assigning Stephanopolous over to Fox and Friends, and see if he still struts his stuff when he gets back.

Normally, this might be a moment, where we would kick it off to cue up Que Sera Sera.

But no, this was a Leonard Pinth Garnell evening ("Unrelentingly bad!") all the way, so we have to go highbrow, and let Harry Lime sign us off.

In Italy for thirty years under the Borgias they had warfare, terror, murder, bloodshed - but they produced Michelangelo, Leonardo da Vinci and the Renaissance. In Switzerland they had brotherly love, five hundred years of democracy and what did that produce - the cuckoo clock!

And it took, seemingly, forever, for the cuckoo clock to strike the evening over.


The Bonus Cavalcade-of-Links
(Apologies - Too tired to link and tag the way we normally do)

Katrina vanden Heuvel: A GOTCHA DEBATE...

Greg Mitchell: The Debate: A Shameful Night for the U.S. Media

Nicole Belle/C&L: Attention ABC: You’re HURTING America! UPDATED with VIDEO!

Keith Olbermann: Hannity Feeding Question To Stephanopolous; NBC’s Chuck Todd tells Countdown’s Keith Olbermann that Sen. Barack Obama ‘did not have a good night’ during the Democratic Presidential Debate in Philadelphia

Eli on Firedoglake: Sweet Jesus, I Hate Charlie Gibson Democratic Debate Wrap-Up

Chris Cillizza: Keystone Kerfuffle: First Thoughts

ABC (Read This One More For The Comment Section): Clinton, Obama Find 'Brotherly Love' at Philly Debate; Dems Last Chance to Settle Scores Before Pennsylvania Primary

Andrew Sullivan: After The Freak Show

Foon Rhee/Boston Globe: Clinton, Obama trade jabs on electability, honesty















Qualifications for Debate Monitor: Be a former staff member of the husband of one of the participants in this so-called debate

Clinton Camp, Burnishing Her Experience Resume, Claims David Bowie Song "Changes" All About Hillary

Looking to batten down the hatches, before the Obama wave crashes over them, Hillary Clinton's campaign came out swinging today, dropping a bombshell in an attempt to continue her Saturday Night Debate theme, burnishing her experience credentials'.

David Bowie's song "Changes" was written for, and about, Hillary Clinton.

"Hillary was already battling, and bringing about change when Barack Obama was only changing his diapers," boasted Mark Penn, Clinton's chief pollster and strategist.

"Bowie recognized, early on, Hillary as an agent for change", Penn continued. "He wanted to do something to honor that, to pay respect to it, so he wrote that snazzy song."

"He had a vision, an artists' eye, on how caring and unselfish a politician Hillary would be."

Penn claims it was originally titled 'You're So Change", but that Bowie retitled it, after hearing that Carly Simon was working on an idea, eventually coming out with her hit tune, "You're So Vain".

In just a few days, since her third--place finish in the Iowa Caucus, and her defensive posture last Saturday evening, in the ABC Debate that saw saw Obama and John Edwards shine as much, if not more, than Hillary, the Clinton campaign has had to quickly revamp their efforts to avoid Hillary being pegged by the media as part of the "status quo".

Polls released today show Obama gaining strength, catching a bounce and leading by 10-points in one, 13-points in another.

Penn ignored questions from reporters, citing President Bill Clinton, and his using Fleetwood Mac's "Don't Stop" as his theme, when he ran for President.

Penn quickly sniped "Good band, good tune, but they didn't write that specifically for the President."

Penn also downplayed the incident today, of Hillary weeping or crying during a campaign stop, quickly dismissing the Muskie comparisons, indicating "she was thinking about the song, it was playing in her head, all the change she's brought about and it touched her."

Rachel Maddow, Air America host and MSNBC pundit said that "it was too early to say if Hillary was crying."

Plans, according to Penn, included having the Bowie tune "Changes" blaring at her campaign appearances and, sources say, efforts are on-going to get Bowie to come out, tell the story himself and publically endorse the junior Senator from New York.

Penn would not confirm plans for a Facebook collaboration of a "Changes" party, with Hillary appearing, dressed as Bowie and singing a specially-written version of "Changes", that would include a list of her many accomplishments of leading change.

Asked how relevant David Bowie would be to the youthful Facebook audience, an artist that hasn't had a hit record in years, and, in 2004, only placed 39th in Rolling Stone's 100 Greatest Artists of All Time, Penn would hear none of it.

"We'll just chalk it up to another "change" accomplishment on Hillary's resume."

When reached for comment, an Obama staffer chortled at the news and offered that it "sounds like her campaign is stuttering, just like in the song."

Bonus Hillary Links

Changes - David Bowie

Creature - Hillary for President

Josh Marshall - Where We Are

Attytood - A brief history of crying in the New Hampshire primary

Frank Rich - They Didn’t Stop Thinking About Tomorrow