ABC News Misses the Box

By Sniffles

As cats, we hate it when our aim is off. Even if there’s old newspaper under the litter box to catch any accidents, we’re still embarrassed.

And that’s how ABC News should be feeling today.

Last night’s so-called Democratic "debate" in Pennsylvania was a disgrace to the political process and to journalism, and it’s all Charlie Gibson’s and George Stephanopoulos’ fault. Although the event started at 8 p.m. Eastern time, it wasn’t until 9:04 p.m. that Little Georgie finally raised what was, as he himself said, the most important issue on the minds of American voters — the economy.

What?? A full 64 minutes into a debate? What could they possibly have asked Senators Clinton and Obama about prior to that?

You got it: minutiae. Bosnia and “bitter,” pastors and pins. Stuff that’s been hashed over ad nauseum not just for days, but for weeks. Senator Obama’s remarks to a closed-door fundraiser in San Francisco. The sermons of Rev. Jeremiah Wright (how old is that story now?). And — unbelievably — why doesn’t Senator Obama wear the American flag in his lapel? This allegedly burning issue was brought up via video by a woman named “Nash.” (What, did her parents conceive her in the car?)

In other words, for more than an hour, Charlie and Georgie neglected to ask the candidates about the housing crisis, the credit crunch, the turmoil on Wall Street, wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, nuclear proliferation, Iran, global warming… my goodness, we can go on and on.

Looks like ABC is letting the shouters on cable TV and talk radio — not to mention clueless Pennsylvania voters with silly names — set their debate agenda for them. And this, from the network that broke the White-House-principals-meet-on-torture story.

We send a big HISS to Gibson and Stephanopoulos for wasting precious minutes of airtime on worthless trivia.

And we PURR warmly in the direction of all those elected officials who believe that serving the people is more important than wearing cheap jewelry.