April 18, 2008--Media Bashing

I haven't done much media bashing in a while; but after the other evening's Democratic presidential debate on ABC News, I can't contian myself.

Some, including the New York Times, called this "arguably Barack Obama's worst debate." (See article linked below.)

That may be true, but inarguably it was the media's worst performance. The first 45 minutes were devoted almost exclusively to gossipy, tabloid-level kinds of questions. Most of which have been sliced and diced during the past month. Almost all of these low-ball questions, or accusations, were hurled at Senator Obama, but we also heard more about Senator Clinton's Bosnia sniper-fire "misspeaking."

It was clear that Senator Obama was made uncomfortable by this. It's hard to know precisely why. Probably a combination of not wanting endlessly to have to deal with questions about his former pastor. But I suspect he was agitated as well for other reasons. At least I hope so.

Thus, if the latter is true, I pass along here what he might say when he finds himself in similar circumstances. Which he certainly will as long as Hillary Clinton remains in the race and if he is nominated and has to face the Republican Attack Machine.

After about 30-35 minutes, Barck Obama, when asked another question about Reverend Wright or whatever, should visibly look at his watch and say:

"Charlie, George, Tim, Kati, Brian I suspect you and the viewers may be sensing my frustration.

It is true--I am very frustrated. But not by the tenor of your questions. After all you are free to ask me and Senator Clinton anything you want. That's what the Free Press is all about. And though, to be honest, I'm not happy with these questions it's not for the reasons you may be thinking.

It's because we've been debating now for nearly ___ minutes and thus far you haven't asked either of us anything about education, healthcare, the environment, the mortgage crisis, jobs, trade, the wars in Iraq or Afghanistan, or terrorism.

I've been traveling this country for 16 months and these are the things that are on people's minds. Yes, they are concerned about both of our truthfulness, experience, character, and personal history. But not as much and not with the same sense of priorites as the nature and extent of your questioning here would suggest.

I think we've had about 20 debates. This is the 21st. If you add up all the time we've debated it comes to ___ hours. I asked my staff the other day to make a chart for me about how much time has been devoted to critical issues such as the environment and education. To use just those two subjects as examples. Issues voters across this country keep asking both Senator Clinton and me about. They told me that we were asked only ___ questions about the envirnoment and we took up only ___ minutes discussing that. And just ___ questions about education. We spent ___ minutes talking about that. This out of nearly ___ hours of debating.

So that's why I'm frustrated. Because you and your colleagues have posed so few questions to us about these vital issues that are critical to our nation's future, to the world's future, but which have been substantially ignored during all these many debates.

I am running for the presidency to try to begin to change all that. Let me be clear--not to tell the press and the media what to focus on. As an old teacher of constitutional law I know that your freedom is one of our most cherished. But if and when I'm nominated, and if I am elected president, I will spend a lot of my time, energy, and political capital trying to get us to talk about jobs, the environment, education, healthcare, the war against terror, and our place in the world. Things of that sort.

I'll leave the rest of this stuff to others.

So now you know why I've been shifting back and forth on my feet and looking frustrated. It's because I am.
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