{"id":5322,"date":"2007-11-19T12:57:18","date_gmt":"2007-11-19T20:57:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.bradblog.com\/?p=5322"},"modified":"2018-02-09T19:51:54","modified_gmt":"2018-02-10T03:51:54","slug":"17-presidential-debates-1500-questions-almost-none-that-actually-mattered","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bradblog.com\/?p=5322","title":{"rendered":"17 Presidential Debates, 1500 Questions, Almost None That Actually Mattered"},"content":{"rendered":"

Blogged by Brad from St. Louis, MO…<\/em><\/p>\n

In light of our story this morning<\/a> on the Mainstream Corporate Media’s failure to air the charges of an extraordinarily credible FBI whistleblower, whose charges are described by the legendary Vietnam-era whistleblower Daniel Ellsberg as “far more explosive than the Pentagaon Papers”, the following<\/a>, we suppose, should come as little surprise. Yet, in reviewing the points below, the mind still reels…<\/p>\n

\n

Through 17 debates this year, roughly 1,500 questions have been asked of the two parties' presidential candidates. But only a small handful of questions have touched on the candidates' views on executive power, the Constitution, torture, wiretapping, or other civil liberties concerns. (A description of those questions appears at the end of this
\ncolumn.)<\/p>\n

Only one question about wiretapping. Not a single question about FISA<\/a>.<\/p>\n

There has<\/i>, however, been a question about whether the Constitution should be changed to allow Arnold Schwarzenegger to be president.<\/p>\n

Not one question about renditions. The words “habeas corpus” have not once been spoken by a debate moderator. Candidates have not been asked about telecom liability.<\/p>\n

But there was<\/i> this illuminating question, asked of a group of Republicans running for president: “Seriously, would it be good for America to have Bill Clinton back living in the White House?”<\/p>\n

Though Republicans often claim that the Bush administration's warrantless wiretapping of Americans is necessary to
\nprevent “another 9-11,” debate moderators have not once asked candidates about recent revelations that suggest the administration began its surveillance efforts long before<\/i> the September 11, 2001, attacks, not in response to them.<\/p>\n

But NBC's Brian Williams did<\/i> ask the Democratic candidates what they would “go as” for Halloween.<\/p>\n

No moderator has asked a single question of a single candidate about whether the president should be able to order the
\nindefinite detention of an American citizen, without charging the prisoner with any crime.<\/p>\n

But Tim Russert did<\/i> ask Congressman Dennis Kucinich — in what he felt compelled to insist was “a serious question” — whether he has seen a UFO.<\/p>\n

No moderator has asked a single question about whether the candidates agree with the Bush administration's
\nrather skeptical view of congressional oversight.<\/p>\n

But Hillary Clinton was<\/i> asked, “Do you prefer diamonds or pearls?”<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Rest of story…<\/a><\/p>\n

(Hat-tip to NYU’s journalism professor, Mark Crispin Miller<\/a>)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Blogged by Brad from St. Louis, MO… In light of our story this morning on the Mainstream Corporate Media’s failure to air the charges of an extraordinarily credible FBI whistleblower, whose charges are described by the legendary Vietnam-era whistleblower Daniel Ellsberg as “far more explosive than the Pentagaon Papers”, the following, we suppose, should come […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"ep_exclude_from_search":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[122,1100,46,188],"tags":[],"coauthors":[],"class_list":["post-5322","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-election-2008","category-fisa","category-mainstream-corporate-media","category-mainstream-media-failure"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bradblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5322","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bradblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bradblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bradblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bradblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=5322"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bradblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5322\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bradblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5322"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bradblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5322"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bradblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5322"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bradblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcoauthors&post=5322"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}