Charles Gibson should truly be ashamed of the interview with John
McCain that aired on tonight's World News Tonight
[Wednesday July 9th].
Over the course of a minute and a half [a significant amount of time in
a 24 minute broadcast], Gibson clearly drove McCain to discuss
allegations that Senator Obama has changed some policy
positions. McCain, not surprisingly, took the bait.
Gibson went so far as to ask McCain if he would call Obama a
"flip-flipper."
Gibson failed to mention even once any of the myriad policy positions
on which McCain has made 180 degree policy turns. To mention a
few: McCain refused to support his **own** immigration
legislation when it became clear to him how unpopular it was with the
right wing base of the Republican party.. McCain unambiguously
called the Bush tax cuts irresponsible, but, amazingly, he now wants
to make them permanent. McCain has resolutely opposed
expanded off-shore drilling, until he decided he could score some
political points off of it. These are just the beginning of a
long list.
This interview represents journalism at its worst: appealing to
the gutter to sell a story or, even worse, direct the course of the
story and even of a campaign. I expect better out of both Charles
Gibson and ABC News.