Why Did KE04 agree to a debate with Charlie Gibson?

[indyjones1938]

He's a country club Republican who has a vendetta against Kerry going back to Vietnam. Anyone who saw their altercation on Good Morning America earlier this year knows he's out for blood.

He's going to do the same thing to Kerry that Gwen ("Condi's my best friend") Ifill did to Edwards. Biased and loaded questions, refusing to give those 30 second extensions, while giving the other guy back-to-back questions.

Furthermore he's not even a true journalist. His show is entertainment, not investigative journalism. They should've let Jim Lehrer or Bob Schieffer do all four debates, or else had other halfway decent people like Tom Brokaw, Dan Rather, Barbara Walters or Larry King.

:puke:
:puke:
:puke:
:puke:

[Bush was AWOL]

1. I agree

but I think both Scheiffer and Gibson are too partisan to be doing the debates. Lehrer should do all 4.

[indyjones1938]

4. Schieffer's a good guy

I've never seen any bias on his part in either direction. The older journalists try their best to be evenhanded in these matters.

Gibson and Ifill get their paychecks directly from the RNC. I have never seen a worse, more biased moderator than Ifill on Tuesday night. She gave Cheney two back-to-back questions at least twice, and ignored Edwards at least three times when he requested those 30-sec extensions. Plus, her questions were loaded against K/E and she kept bringing up irrelevant wedge issues during the domestic part of the debate.

[ProfessorPlum]

9. I read on a blog a few days ago

that Schieffer has a brother who is a Bush family business partner. And Schieffer is regularly clueless on some pretty important issues - see the Pundit Pap section of American Journal for past offenses.

But he's probably about as good as we could do in today's climate.

[CrowNotAngelGRL]

2. I wouldn't mind

Walters or King. That would be pretty good.

[hughee99]

3. Dan Rather???

Yes, because unlike Ifill and Gibson, Rather clearly has no axe to grind. He's not resentful in the slightest that the repukes have made him out to be the bad guy in the whole "documents" situation. I'm sorry, but I don't think anyone would take seriously the suggestion that Dan Rather moderate a debate.

[ProfessorPlum]

8. Rmember, just because the Freeptards are down on you

and screaming "bias", doesn't mean you can't be an objective journalist.

Otherwise, the terrorists have already won.

[hughee99]

12. I wasn't suggesting that Rather couldn't be

objective, just that he would NEVER be acceptable to * because of this, and therefore could never be a serious canidate to moderate a debate.

[wicket]

5. Bill Moyers should moderate

I'd love to see Bill Moyers moderate a debate.

[ProfessorPlum]

7. Missed it by THIS much

It's like you're reading my mind, man!

[ProfessorPlum]

6. You've got a funny list of

"halfway decent" people. Brokaw and King are repeatedly shills for this administration. LK won't even interview Kitty Kelly about her new book. Brokaw embarrassed himself in the last election cycle with his fawning of Bush and savaging of Gore.

Rather, though he knows better, is too much of a scared man to really stand up for what he knows is right. He'll discuss the failures of the US media when he is visiting another country, but knows to toe the line here.

As for Wawa, I don't think you'd get much from her other than "conventional wisdom"-questions a la Ifill.


How about Bill Moyers??!!!

[indyjones1938]

13. I'll take anyone but Gibson

even Ed Gillespie would be less blatant.

:puke:

[julialnyc]

21. Dianne Sawyer

I'd take Gibson's co-host

[Cha]

25. dianne sawyer was blatantly hostile to The

Dixie Chicks, and who else did she interview lately?

[Shakespeare]

26. Didn't she hassle Natalie Portman over her Kerry shirt?

Sawyer's a complete lightweight, and recent behavior suggests she's also a bit too right-leaning to handle something like a debate.

[julialnyc]

28. I don't know why

She is married to Mike Nichols (Angels in America) and cares very much about issues that are anti-republican (woman's issues, AIDS, ect..)

I actually know someone who knows her....she is not a republican.

[Cha]

33. That's interesting...she must be trying to

impress the hell outta her disney bosses, then.

[BillZBubb]

36. Sawyer is a lifelong Republican!

She was a CLOSE aid to Richard Nixon for Pete's sake. She's not a neo-con or a fundy, but she's Repug.

[aint_no_life_nowhere]

10. How about Charlie Rose?

Isn't he fairly even-handed and professional?

[glitch]

18. No! Bill Moyers smacked him down on his bias last time I saw him on

Charlie Rose. Beautiful thing to see. It was awhile ago.
Charlie Rose smarms up to *co like I do not believe, I can't watch him anymore.

Hear hear for Bill Moyers as moderator.

[seabeyond]

11. ya well we want kerry to be our preseident of high expectation

if he is going to fix all of bush's fuck ups i have faith he will be able to and be confident in, ability to take charles, the repugs, bushie, and the set up audience on.

what does it say about kerry if clearly he is being fucked adn he kicks ass

what if kerry has the confidence in his ability

[JI7]

14. watlers and king don't understand issues, they are gossip types and

brokaw is not any better than gibson based on some things i have seen.

[indyjones1938]

17. Well

Brokaw and G.W. Bush are cousins. Conflict of interest?

Then again it was Bush's 1st cousin John Ellis at FOXNews who first called Florida round one for the chimp in 2000.

[JI7]

20. the fact is most of them are biased in favor of Bush

jim lehrer is the one most seen as objective. although he did let bush get away with rule breaking. but because kerry did such a great job and bush still sucked we haven't made an issue out of it.

bill moyers is one that i see as being a good moderator and i think he would hit both candidates hard on the issues. but he is also a known liberal.

there just aren't many names i can think of that would be good and both sides would end up agreeing to. also, when it was decided who the moderators were,kerry was the one who needed the debates the most. if they had decided on moderators after the first debate, kerry would have had more advantage on who he wanted first.

but kerry understands how the media works and he knows it's just something we have to deal with.

[fugop]

15. Kerry oughta call Gibson on it

If Gibson does continue this year's trend of giving far more extensions to the Bush side than to our guys, I sure hope Kerry's got the perfect line to call him on it. I'd absolutely love for him to just talk right over Gibson and demand that extensions shouldn't be a one-sided giveaway. Take out both jerks with one well-tossed stone.

[newyawker99]

35. Hi fugop!!

Welcome to DU!! :toast:

[Bleacher Creature]

16. One more thing about Scheiffer

Is anyone worried that he is going to overcompensate to try and take some of the heat off of CBS? Remember, the Bush team originally objected to having any CBS person moderate -- which is entirely consistent with their intimidate the media strategy.

[WilliamPitt]

19. You're kidding, right? Still with the second-guessing...

OK, clue phone:

THE KERRY/EDWARDS COMBO HAS LAID WASTE TO BUSH AND CHENEY IN DEBATES THUS FAR.

THE KERRY/EDWARDS CREW WOULD HAVE AGREED TO DEBATE BUSH AND CHENEY UNDERWATER, IN DRESSES, WITH GOLDFISH SWIMMING IN AND OUT OF THEIR MOUTHS.

WHY?

THE KERRY/EDWARDS COMBO HAS LAID WASTE TO BUSH AND CHENEY IN DEBATES THUS FAR.

More of the same to ensue. They knew *exactly* what they were agreeing to.

[indyjones1938]

23. Kerry steamrolled Bush

in round one because Jim Lehrer was a fair and non-biased moderator.

Edwards would've steamrolled Cheney had Gwen Ifill not thrown out loaded, biased questions and refused Edwards rebuttal time. As it was he came out slightly ahead amongst undecideds, but the margin of victory was closer.

The moderator unfortunately has full control oevr the tone of these debates. Gibson could do to Kerry what Ifill did to Edwards bu throwing out wedge issues and refusing him those 30-sec rebuttals.

[Irishladdie]

22. Its the only way the Reep's agreed to 3 Debates...

Thats the only reason the Reep's accepted Three Presidential Debates.

[Cha]

24. Not brokaw...he's carrying too much H2O for the

gop!

EDIT~ but, yeah..We knew ifil was going to do a lousy job on Edwards and she did..now with gibson..I expect the worst!

When are we going to bet FAirness?

[crickets]

27. My dream moderator

would have been Walter Cronkite. There's no questioning his credentials or his integrity.

[progressivebydesign]

29. Howard Stern and Rush Limbaugh.. together.

That would be much more interesting.

[Catherine Vincent]

30. Jim Lehr is the best. But Brian Lamb would be great also.

If he'd only agree to moderate the presidential debates.

[julialnyc]

31. Aaron Brown

[Oak2004]

32. Gee... anybody here

think breaking up big media should be near the top of the Kerry administration's agenda?

I know that I think we need to systematically build an independent progressive media -- that this needs to be a top post-election priority for progressives. I've even been toying with publishing a small neighborhood newspaper, not explicity political (we already do plenty of preaching to the choir), but with a progressive editorial policy. I'd sink my money into something bigger, if only I had that kind of money.

[Cha]

34. Welcome to DU and Yes!

Numero Uno!

[DeepModem Mom]

37. kick