GOP candidates refuse to take part in YouTube Debate

[mhollis]

Source: Washington Post

In four days, CNN and YouTube plan a debate with Republican candidates for President. Only Senator John McCain and Ron Paul are willing to participate, with the Giuliani campaign stating that he definitely will not participate. Sam Feist of CNN states "Aside from those two candidates, we haven't heard from anyone else."

Read more: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/07/27/AR2007072700283_pf.html

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Obviously, the Republicans watched how free-wheeling the Democratic debate was and have chickened out (or maybe they're "cutting and running"). Republicans have been counting on the press to be soft on them for some time, which is a pretty good indication of press bias (of course a press bias opposite to what Republicans have been portraying).

I was laid off at NBC last November as a part of their "NBC 2.0" downsizing effort. I don't believe my political affiliation or opinions had anything to do with the layoff, as I did cost NBC more than some of their other people in the same position due to my particular talents as an editor and producer. But NBC has been and I believe the other media outlets have been treating politicians like film stars, not like servants of the people. The media does not challenge candidates enough and they absolutely do not challenge politicians who hold office.

Nobody asked Bush, Cheny, Ashcroft, Congressmen, Senators or anyone about withdrawal of our rights encased in The "Patriot" Act. Nobody asked the administration to offer any proof whatsoever about the connection proposed between Saddam Hussein and Al Quaeda. Nobody questioned the administration in their case about Weapons of Mass Destruction in Iraq or even questioned the plausibility of the story about the purchase of yellow cake uranium by Iraq or the plausibility of the claim that aluminum tubes would be used in centrifuges when anyone could determine, based on the particular tubes ordered, that they would not work.

With CNN moderating questions directly from the people, Republicans obviously have a real issue here. Mitt Romney even singled out the "snowman" question as being inappropriate. Of course he's putting the focus on the questioner and not the question, which is a standard Republican tactic—attack the source of the question so that you can evade speaking to the actual issues.

CNN and YouTube are billing these debates as "The Peoples' Debate." I do appreciate the fact that the questions are phrased by actual individuals who have Internet access and the ability to videotape themselves (a subset of "The People") but we do need to keep aware that these questions are filtered through the media conglomerate that is CNN.

Even with the benefit of that filter, I find it significant that "The Party of Inclusion" wants things more candy-coated and more heavily scripted.