CNN's framing is intended to advance the scripted narrative accepted by the DC media establishment.

You saw it in the way questions were asked, such as, "Do you believe human rights are more important than national security?" Or how Blitzer or Malveaux would tack on qualifying questions that fit more easily into acceptable frames, such as when the woman asked about what criteria would be used to evaluate Supreme Court nominees (Malveaux "helpfully" asserted that this meant that the candidates needed to directly address abortion).

Check out this graphic at ChrisDodd.com -

The Beard got more talk time than Dodd and Kucinich combined, and came in third behind Clinton (2) and Obama (1).

____________________________

"Respect mah authoritah!" - Fred Cartman Thompson

I'm watching a rerun of the debate right now and they really needed a buzzer rather than Wolf butting in with "alright.... alright...." or "ok" to keep the candidates' answers within the time limit. it just started bothering the heck out of me.

Good analysis, Carole. Their questions to all the candidates were sometimes ridiculous. I would suggest the candidates get together and meet with CNN to discuss how not to let this happen again. It was nearly a joke. Where was Nancy Grace when you needed her?

Richardson is dropping on my list of viable presidential candidates. Dodd and Biden are rising. Obama not a factor. Edwards and Clinton pretty much the same. Kucinich is well Kucinich. Is he really presidential material? dunno.

Good write-up Carole. I agree, CNN was the big loser.

A good example that sort of sums up the whole thing was John Roberts (is that his name?) starting out a question with "I want to talk to you about..."

I thought the idea was for the candidates to talk to us?

Anyway, I thought Biden was more Clintonesque than Clinton. Dodd is by far the best orator, and has some good ideas. Richardson is great on paper as far as qualifications, but he just doesn't sell it. I could almost imagine Kucinich as president there for a second. Almost. Just for a second. I agree with the Mrs., Obama is not a factor. I still like Edwards for his anti-establishment stance, but his desperation is starting to show a little more.

The whole CNN pregame crap about how this was going to be the defining moment of the whole election, the turning point, do or die time for the candidates, blah blah really put me off. Their sense of self importance knows no bounds. And they really, REALLY want Hillary to win so they will have a punching bag for the next 12 months because it makes for good TV or something.

CNN has really gone downhill over the last two or three years. Maybe four. It's been awful in the last year. The goofballs they have on in the daytime wouldn't cut it at WBIR. They need to fire the whole damn bunch of on-air "personalities" and start over with some real journalists and serious news people.

--I agree with Andy Axel: some lame either/or questions by the Beard.

--A debate over 2 hours is too long.

--I only watched segments of it. For a while everyone was standing, then I flip back, and everyone is sitting. Huh?

--One of the best responses of the night came when Hillary Clinton said, "I'm not playing the gender card, I'm playing the winning card."

Right. Then, almost in the same breath, she said this:

"And I have to tell you, as I travel around the country, you know, fathers drive hours to bring their daughters to my events And so many women in their 90s wait to shake my hand. And they say something like: I'm 95 years old, I was born before women could vote, and I want to live long enough to see a woman in the White House."

If that isn't making an appeal based on her gender, then what is playing the gender card?

Brian A.
I'd rather be cycling.

If this is true, CNN is even lamer than I thought.

Brian A.
I'd rather be cycling.

Given the choice between almost anything and CNN, I would pick the other thing. I might even watch a Hallmark channel movie instead. I strongly believe that CNN changed the world for the bad with it's 24-hour glare on the world.

And, I haven't watched a single presidential debate from beginning to end. I'm not completely convinced that this string of nonsensical blabbering is helping us pick a president. I think it's just wearing most of us out.

No, I don't have a solution, but what we have right now isn't it.

pgs

Pam Strickland

"We are what we pretend to be, so we must be careful about what we pretend to be." ~Kurt Vonnegut

I like to graze on the videos available at CNN.com and I watch their TV news if there is some ongoing "crisis", but on a day to day basis CNN is nothing but fluff, teasers, and commercial breaks. MSNBC is hardly different and it is household policy to remove faux news from the receiver's program guide.

After all, the viewer is not the customer, the customer is the advertiser.

Wearybottom Associates

Oh, this is just getting better and better...

Maria Luisa, the UNLV student who asked Hillary Clinton whether she preferred "diamonds or pearls" at last night's debate wrote on her MySpace page this morning that CNN forced her to ask the frilly question instead of a pre-approved query about the Yucca Mountain nuclear waste repository.

"Every single question asked during the debate by the audience had to be approved by CNN," Luisa writes. "I was asked to submit questions including "lighthearted/fun" questions. I submitted more than five questions on issues important to me. I did a policy memo on Yucca Mountain a year ago and was the finalist for the Truman Scholarship. For sure, I thought I would get to ask the Yucca question that was APPROVED by CNN days in advance."

____________________________

"Respect mah authoritah!" - Fred Cartman Thompson

I happened to catch the last half much later than I should have been awake. At some point they left the lectern and came back in chairs. Some point later I went outside to smoke and came back to see the lecterns back. It took me a minute to realize that it had ended and CNN was replaying it again and that I could watch the first half as well.

The whole thing disgusted me. CNN opened with this hoopla reminiscent of a sports broadcast, discussing the relative strengths and weaknesses of each candidate in a sense that truly downplayed the very real issues they keep not really discussing. Let's spend ten minutes talking about who can pull off the big win instead of really discussing the issues and why each candidate stands where they stand.

Kucinich, the one candidate really willing to make people uncomfortable, something I see as necessary in any kind of leader, just keeps getting shut out and ignored. Is it really all because he's kind of short and funny looking? Are we so vain that we'd rather have handsome Obama kowtowing to the republicans instead of outspoken and honest yet homely Kucinich? Even if people don't want him as president, the other candidates need to at least be asked the questions he's asking. Why haven't they impeached Bush and Cheney yet? Oooh, no, let's not bring that up here. It's not on the agenda.

I watched the debate looking at half the candidates as being partly responsible for allowing our country to get where it is today, and there's no way in hell I want any of them to get full control. I hadn't ever even seen Chris Dodd or Bill Richardson, so this was the first time I really got to hear them speak, and I kind of liked them. They were articulate and seemed sincere, I suppose, but I was really bothered by their thoughts on education, especially Richardson.

In all it just fueled the depressed anger I feel at the state of my country and the options available for future mismanagement. It's the damn Peter Principal, and it doesn't seem like there's anything you can do.

Best/Most Telling Line of the Night and a shiny nickel to whoever remembers who said it, "I voted for the fence, but I didn't vote to fence the whole thing."

Why vote for a lesser evil? Cthulu 2008

I got an email earlier this evening from the NV Dems, pointing to a graph that shows the Las Vegas "debate" (my quotes - for obvious reasons) actually had a record audience. See for yourself.