Moderators- Source of Debate

After Wednesday night’s presidential debate, the moderators, Charles Gibson and George Stephanopolous, received many criticisms on their questions to the democratic candidates. The Wednesday night’s Democratic Primary debate on ABC was seen by 10.7 million viewers, the highest watched debate throughout the 2008 election. Yet, the questions asked by the moderators were less than adequate to the issues that concern the American people. “Only after half of the 90-minute debate had been concluded did the moderators turn to questions concerning Iraq, Iran, the housing crisis and affirmative action.” Instead, the moderators asked questions like why wasn’t Senator Barack Obama wear an American flag pin on his jacket lapel?

When commenting on the complaints by bloggers over the debate, George Stephanopolous, the host of “This Week” on ABC, commented, “ We thought it made sense to deal with the core controversies,” but “what has become the No. 1 issue between the candidates- who can win in November?” I guess winning, who’s ahead in the election, is the most significant issue, but to most viewers say otherwise, seen through the complaints and criticisms of the debate. Rather than viewing the politics of the primaries as a means of choosing leaders and solving their problems, the debate was seen as a game, a competition of who’s on top. Reporters are taught to focus on game schema, keeping the politics of the primaries a race and competition rather than a source of problem solving. David Bohrman, overseer of political coverage at CNN, “said he would have instead had the moderators ask each candidate about their stance on a possible amendment to the Constitution banning flag-burning,” rather than take up the issue of Obama not wearing the flag pin on his lapel. “ ‘That’s a legitimate flag question,’ Mr. Bohrman said. ‘ I think the voters are expecting more from us.’” The media needs to focus more on the candidates stances of how to solve issues and problems through policy, rather than “dwelling on matters that had been picked over for weeks, like the incendiary comments of Mr. Obama’s former pastor, or Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton’s assertion that she had to duck sniper fire in Bosnia more than a decade ago.”