Wednesday, May 07, 2008

Imagine

So I drank too much coffee last night and couldn't fall asleep and all of these blog posts just kept dancing through my head...

Imagine, just for a moment if George Stephanopoulos and Charlie Gibson had taken seriously the fact that the public owns the airwaves. Imagine if they had taken seriously their role as journalists. Imagine if they had taken seriously the problems facing our country.

Imagine if instead of bringing in someone to ask a ridiculous question about a flag pin, imagine if Stephanopoulos had brought in the nation's top climate scientist to ask a question about global warming. Or imagine if he had brought in an Iraqi legislator to ask a genuine question about how complicated withdrawal from Iraq will be. Imagine if Stephanopolous had brought in a geologist to start a debate as to whether we have reached peak oil and what that will do to gasoline prices over the next 10, 20, or 30 years. Imagine if Stephanopolous had brought in a fisherman to talk about the collapse of the salmon stocks off the coast of California. Imagine if he had asked the candidates what their strategy will be for ending autism, hunger, or sexually transmitted disease or whether they have a strategy to deal with these issues at all. Imagine if he had brought in Amory Lovins to ask a question about energy policy, Maya Angelou to ask a question about race, or Saul Williams to ask a question about, well, anything.

I guess I'm saying, imagine if Stephanopolous or Gibson had acted like the presidential election actually matters (which of course everyone EXCEPT corporate media already realizes).

But of course, Stephanopolous and Gibson didn't ask any of those questions. When you really think about all the questions they refused to ask, the fact that when given the national stage they turned a presidential debate into a sideshow circus -- it really makes a serious case for firing both Stephanopoulos and Gibson. I think you could even make the case for ABC to lose their broadcast license.

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