Great American Hypocrites: Glenn Greenwald on the Corporate Media's Failures in the 2008 Race

During the first forty-five minutes of the debate, the moderators Charles Gibson and George Stephanopoulos focused on Obama’s comments that some voters in Pennsylvania were bitter, the Rev. Jeremiah Wright controversy, Clinton’s Bosnia “sniper fire” story, flag pins and the Weather Underground.

The prime-time debate was seen by 10.7 million people, according to Nielsen Media Research. That"s the most of any debate this election cycle. According to the Associated Press, nearly 17,000 comments were posted on ABC News" Web site by Thursday evening, the tone overwhelmingly negative. Tom Shales of The Washington Post, said Gibson and Stephanopoulos “turned in shoddy, despicable performances.” Media critic Greg Mitchell said it was “perhaps the most embarrassing performance by the media in a major presidential debate in years.” Salon.com said “I’m not sure if we”ve seen anything quite as train-wreck, cover-your-eyes bad as the spectacle on ABC last night." Will Bunch, a Philadelphia Daily News writer, posted an open letter to Gibson and Stephanopoulos on his blog telling them, “you disgraced the American voters, and in fact even disgraced democracy itself.” And the group MoveOn said it would run an ad protesting ABC if 100,000 people signed their petition.

Glenn Greenwald is a former constitutional law attorney and a now a contributing writer at Salon. He is the author of three books, his latest, just out, is “Great American Hypocrites: Toppling the Big Myths of Republican Politics.” Glenn joins me from Washington DC.

Glenn Greenwald, constitutional law attorney and political and legal blogger for Salon.com. He is the author of three books, his latest is “Great American Hypocrites: Toppling the Big Myths of Republican Politics.”

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