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ABC moderators are criticized for handling of debate
Many say questions focused on the trivial
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Published: April 18, 2008
NEW YORK
ABC News drew record ratings and a heap of complaints about how Charles Gibson and George Stephanopoulos moderated the Democratic presidential debate Wednesday night, criticism that Stephanopoulos called yesterday a sign of how much people care.
By midafternoon yesterday, more than 15,600 comments had been posted on ABC News' Web site, the tone overwhelmingly negative. A prominent TV critic, Tom Shales of The Washington Post, said that Gibson and Stephanopoulos "turned in shoddy, despicable performances."
There was some positive response, with columnist David Brooks of The New York Times giving ABC News an "A."
The debate from Philadelphia was seen by 10.7 million people, according to Nielsen Media Research. That is the most of any debate this election cycle and showing that the lull in primaries before Tuesday's in Pennsylvania has not dulled interest in the contest between Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama.
"The questions were tough and fair and appropriate and relevant," Stephanopoulos told The Associated Press. "We wanted to focus at first on the issues that were not focused on during the last debates."
The criticism comes with the territory, he said.
"It's one more sign of how engaged people are over this election," he said.
Early in the debate, ABC's moderators asked for a pledge that the nomination fight's loser would be the vice presidential candidate (they would not) and whether each candidate thought that the other could beat Republican John McCain (they did).
Besides those questions, the first three issues raised comments made by Obama's former pastor, the Rev. Jeremiah Wright; comments that Obama made about the draw of guns and religion to some rural Americans; and Clinton's false claim that she had been under sniper fire in Bosnia while first lady.
Obama was asked about why he has not worn an American flag pin on his lapel, and about his relationship with a former member of the Weather Underground.
All of these matters were raised before Iraq and the economy came up.
Will Bunch, a writer for the Philadelphia Daily News, posted an open letter to Gibson and Stephanopoulos on his blog. He said that the ABC newsmen spent too much time on trivial matters that did not concern most voters.
"By so badly botching arguably the most critical debate of such an important election, in a time of both war and economic misery, you disgraced the American voters and, in fact, even disgraced democracy itself," he wrote.
Shales criticized the early line of questioning, and said that ABC's coverage appeared slanted against Obama.
Greg Mitchell of Editor and Publisher said that it was "perhaps the most embarrassing performance by the media in a major presidential debate this year."
Stephanopoulos acknowledged that it was legitimate to wonder about the order of the questions.
But he said it was appropriate to deal with questions like Wright, Bosnia and Obama's comments about rural Americans because they were issues in the campaign and had not been talked about in debates before.
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