Well, I don't know if one has anything to do with the other, but neither Charlie Gibson or George Stephanopoulos, nor any of their colleagues, are going to be involved in the Obama - McCain debates.
PBS personnel snagged two slots, with "The News Hour's" Jim Lehrer named to oversee the first presidential debate at the U. of Mississippi in Oxford on Sept. 26. "Washington Week's" Gwen Ifill will sit in on the vice presidential faceoff on Oct. 2 at St. Louis' Washington U.
NBC's Tom Brokaw and CBS' Bob Schieffer will moderate the final two presidential debates, on Oct. 7 at Belmont U. in Nashville, and Oct. 15 at Long Island's Hofstra U.
Yep, karma's a bitch, isn't it.
More, including Charlie and George getting booed on air, after the jump.
Back on April 17, the National Journal's Hotline blog said:
Remember when righty bloggers were overwhelmingly appalled by the 12/07 Des Moines Register GOP debate? Well, that was nothing compared to the netroots' reaction to last night's ABC News debate, which is being described as the "worst debate ever," an "unmitigated travesty," and "an abomination." Liberal bloggers are furious that moderators Charles Gibson and George Stephanopolous focused on "partisan gotchas and frivolous points" and didn't ask a single issue-based question for the first 50 minutes. They also believe that many of the questions had a right-wing slant and were biased against Barack Obama. In fact, many bloggers are pointing out that at least one of Stephanopolous' questions did apparently originate in conservative talk radio. Bloggers are voicing their displeasure by urging their readers to call ABC News and complain. As of press time, over 14,000 comments -- most of them negative -- have been posted to the ABC News comments site.
Conservative bloggers, in contrast, were pleased by Gibson's and Stephanopolous' questions. While they think that Hillary Clinton came off looking better than Obama, most of them are convinced that John McCain was the real winner of the debate. The netroots agree with the latter point, which is why the criticism of Clinton in the liberal blogosphere is growing louder and louder.
