Debate sours ABC viewers - boycott ABCs "World News"!

[dkf]

Debate sours ABC viewers

In comments on the network's site, they say they'll no longer watch 'World News.'
By Matea Gold, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer
April 19, 2008

NEW YORK -- Anger at ABC News over the approach its moderators took in this week's Democratic debate continued to spill forth online Friday, with many people writing that they will no longer watch the network's newscasts.

The fierce criticism of the questions posed by moderators Charles Gibson and George Stephanopoulos to Sen. Barack Obama comes as ABC's "World News With Charles Gibson" has been locked in a tight race with "NBC Nightly News With Brian Williams" to be the top-rated network evening newscast.

Whether the controversy will dampen viewership of ABC News' flagship broadcast remains to be seen. But in many of the 20,000-plus comments posted on ABCNews.com, viewers said the tone of the debate undermined ABC's credibility and soured them on the network.

"I can't trust that you could ever deliver a fair and balanced news story after the debate," read one comment posted Friday morning. "My choice will be to tune in elsewhere."
--
Many media critics disparaged the debate's focus, and supporters of the Illinois senator decried the line of questioning as trivial and irrelevant. ABC News' website was immediately bombarded with posts complaining about the tone. Comments kept pouring in Friday.

"This was tabloid TV at best, not what I expected from ABC or Charlie Gibson," wrote one. "Some of us actually live in the real world and care much more about real issues like food and gas prices, losing our health care, etc., not what someone said in church or 40 years ago."

"This was a sad day for ABC," read another post. "It was my last time to consider watching ABC evening news. . . . Peter Jennings would have NEVER done this."

Executives on rival broadcasts said that it was difficult to know how much of an effect the debate would have on the audience but that they would not be surprised if viewing patterns shifted.

"There are a lot of factors as to why people watch any of these broadcasts, but one of them is getting to know the anchor as a person," said Alexandra Wallace, executive producer of "NBC Nightly News." "It's not just what they do between 6:30 and 7."

Said Rick Kaplan, executive producer of "CBS Evening News": "It's never a good idea to irritate the audience."

http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/la-et-abc19apr19,0,5496958.story

[Oleladylib]

1. I have watched it, do watch it, will watch it...Babies have just gotta get over it.

[Bjorn Against]

5. If anyone is a baby it is those who dismiss people as being babies just because...

they hold journalists to a higher standard.

[tom_paine]

26. Goddaned right. It still pisses me off that even now this story is being spun as

"pissed off Obama supporters".

Bullshit! The questions to Sen. Clinton were no better, and it doesn't matter whether you support Obama, Clinton, both or neither.

Objectively, it was a disgrace.

[seabeyond]

9. another disappointment. tis seems to bug enough people to voice out to msm

what the people demand. what we need. it doesnt matter if it is obama or clinton, the media is one sided. they relentlessly go after dem and fabricate stories or allow fabricated story to exculate and spread and do damage. they do not do the same to republican but take it further to coddling.

it doesnt matter which candidtate wins, the media can/will/have ruined our chances. ergo gore and kerry

yet again, i have watched the hillary people shoot themselves in foot to take the lower road with exactly this attitude. heard billie boy call obama a whiner the yesterday. instead the clinton camp could jump on the bandwagon with the voice against msm and this might just be one of the very few or only chance to shame media into better behavior and voice some of the greviences

but no.... hillary and her people would not even think of that and see the good it would do. wouldnt even enter into their head. instead start a mass campaig to say good media good. bad obama bad.

just shoot yourself and dems in the fuckin foot and go limpin off

thanks for the help people on something huge, or what could have been huge. and vital

[otohara]

14. You Just Don't Get It - Do You?

not everything is about Obama vs Clinton. That so called debate was garbage - we've been complaining about the media for years and we finally outed them as greedy opportunists vs a news orginazation.

You should be pissed off, but you are so wrapped up in fighting of supporters, you can't see that we've won by pushing back at a media who gets away with putting a product out there that is so incredibly stupid and dangerous. Lying us into a war ring a bell?

Maybe by pushing back they will stop their game show reality mentality and actually inform people. I think this has put many broadcasters that enough with the crap.

I was so hoping Hillary have used this opportunity to criticize the media - but she's so desperate, she's using this tired old "he can't take the heat" meme BS to rally a crowd. You are in that crowd.

[iamthebandfanman]

16. the sentiment

of a true ignorant and obviously irrational clinton supporter.

youd think youd show more class than that, but then again... you are a clinton supporter , so why not be like her.

[izquierdista]

2. Is that right, Rick?

Is that why you hired Katey Couric to giggle the CBS Evening News every day?

[msongs]

4. we need che back to murder everyone in the media like he did in cuba nt

[KSinTX]

3. Who knows, Katie might get the last giggle on this one n/t

[rurallib]

6. who could ever imagine Katie Couric as a standard of journalism

I will stick with the radio, internet, blogs, Amy Goodman and KO for news. Never seen Charlie or Katie at work, catch maybe 10 minutes of Brian every month.

[KSinTX]

10. Whoa there ... never pimped her as a standard. Simply said she might get last giggle.

Huge difference there!

[rurallib]

13. No - I know I was being sarcastic

[KSinTX]

20. Kewl dat!

[hellbound-liberal]

7. Unfortunately, it IS what I have come to expect from Charlie Gibson and George Stephanopolous

They lost their credibility with me a long time ago. You don't have to watch them too often to witness their irresponsible, slanted view of the "news" that they choose to present. Gibson frequently provides one side of a story while ignoring or minimizing any other views or context that would help the viewer understand it's implications. In a way, ABC, NBC and the rest of the corporate media are more dangerous then people like CNN and Fox because they have a history of doing a decent job at presenting the news and people, for whatever reason, still trust them. My mother used to call television the "idiot box" because she thought it made you stupider the more you watched it. IMO, programs like this debate, and most of the other "in-depth" programming provided by the corporate news media continue to prove her right.

[FreakinDJ]

8. They should FIRED for what they did

Worst Political Debate EVER

Those 2 dimwitted "cork soakers" will go down in history for being the 2 stupidest bumbling tabloid TV idiots ever

[AlCzervik]

11. I agree that the debate was ridiculous but Rick Kaplan----heal they own network!

[lonestarnot]

12. And add Budweiser to the list.

[HuffleClaw]

15. they are still whining? n/t

[iamthebandfanman]

17. didnt you get the call at 3am while dodging gunfire in bosnia? m/t

[HuffleClaw]

18. just to clear something up

i don't support hillary either. they both suck.

[iamthebandfanman]

28. well, u wont get any arguement from me there

sucks having to choose between them.

but given i hafta in the primary, i know who im voting for...and it aint her.

[G_j]

19. If only ppl had reacted as strongly over the selling of the war,

torture, stolen elections etc. etc. etc.
still, see what an impact people really can have when the take some kind of action!

[depakid]

21. After Charles Gibson outed himself- I'll never tune in to anything that man's on

Aside from being an unethical propagandist, he's shown himself to lack enough intelligence to be worth listening to.

[aint_no_life_nowhere]

22. Gibson really seems to be full of himself

He's always had an arrogant smirk on his face. I hope he doesn't think of himself as a real journalist, because he's just a teleprompter reader, a well-paid talking head.

[CTyankee]

27. (sigh) He went to Princeton. I've had more than enough of the Ivy League types

in my lifetime, having once been married to a Harvard man ("you can always tell a Harvard man, but you can't tell him much").

That smirk is imprinted on my brain. They all learn it. Here in New Haven we have enough Yale smirkers to fill the Yale Bowl.

God, I hate it...

[Horse with no Name]

23. ABC jumped the shark long ago--I haven't watched them for ages

I do find it *quite* amusing that with all the things they have done...they dissed the great obama and now people are up in arms.
Newsflash!They haven't changed--they've been this way to OTHER Democrats for quite some time. You just chose not to pay attention.

[taterguy]

24. My life has been much better since I gave up all network TV news a couple years ago

I don't mean to sound smug, I just don't think it's a good use of my time.

Newspapers, magazines and the Internet are a much better source of news.

[tom_paine]

25. Could you imagine "getting to know" toadies like Steffy and Gibson?

"It may be that you are more worthless in the sight of God than MILLIONS like this poor man's child."
--Ghost of Christmas Present to Ebeneezer Scrooge.

To move in the circles of the punditocracy would be dirtier and filthier than moving in the circles of crack and heroin dealers.

One would be physically dirtier and the other would be physically clean with nice linens, the finest crystal drink from and the finest china to eat off.

But spiritually and morally, the Toady Media, at least the Punditocracy section of it, is as filthy as a den of crack dealers.

[creeksneakers2]

29. ABC keeps scrubbing their own website

ABC keeps deleting posts to keep the post count below 20,000. Unfavorable comments disappear. The fastest to go? Anything about how ABC planted that lady in the audience to ask the flag pin question.

I hope this intense reaction keeps up. The mainstream media should pay a price if they choose to run the kind of biased election coverage they have in the past.

http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/DemocraticDebate/comments?type=story&id=4666956

[lifesbeautifulmagic]

30. The only thing i can assume from this debate and Charley's question

about HIS tax cuts and the lack of concern about the loss of good paying jobs, inflation, outrageous executive salaries, crumbling infrastructure, dying cities, bad public schools, the occupation in Iraq and the rumored war with Iran is that ABC and CG hold me, my family and all working families in complete contempt, if not outright hatred.

I do believe Charley is truly looking forward to the absolute destruction of the middle class, so he can realize the true vision he and ABC obviously desire, that of the master class and the rest of us, his obedient servants.

Between this, and the fake 9-11 special, I am so done with ABC.