"McCain supporters were literally begging for some of these points to be made, yet Brit & Co...." Are you saying it is Fox News's responsibility to make McCain's arguments for him?
Posted on 10/15/2008 7:58:29 PM PDT by Chet 99
After the debate was over, the "conservative" pundits immediately trashed McCain. This was followed by Frank Luntz, who declared that is focus group idiots loved Obama (of course Luntz also said Palin was the knockout debate winner and McCain would surge in the polls after her debate).
This is supposed to be the conservative network? I switched over to PBS, and Clarence Page was giving more credit to McCain's performance than the Fox pundits. Same on CNN.
There was nothing fair nor balanced about their analysis tonight.
It was just plain stupid.
Talk about being out of touch. McCain supporters were literally begging for some of these points to be made, yet Brit & Co. come on and say “oh, well, a bunch of garbage was traded about whatzhisname the washed up dude” etc.
It was unbelievable! First time I have not watched Fox debate analysis for more than five minutes.
Read the live thread. That was not the reaction of most freepers, and that’s not an easy crowd.
And if you think there’s not another station that will tell viewers that McCain somehow muffed every opportunity, you’re just nuts.
Amen!
THIS is the true silly season in politics, when we get down to trying to convince the moronic who don’t care enough to figure out squat about our country’s processes.
"McCain supporters were literally begging for some of these points to be made, yet Brit & Co...." Are you saying it is Fox News's responsibility to make McCain's arguments for him?
Of course they can say it’s their opinion that McCain did not win. That is not the issue.
The issue is that, as ANALYSTS, they are supposed to have some level of insight into what it is they are analyzing, to wit, the impact of the debate.
One of the most important impacts of the debate is not on the moronic middle, but on how it revs up a candidate’s supporters, here for the home stretch.
Brit & Co. should have had a clue as to what was important to McCain’s supporters and how the debate fit in with that. The live thread here on FR was fantastic! People were literally cheering at almost every answer McCain gave. They were thrilled that he brought up, for example, Ayers and ACORN-—yet Fox was OBLIVIOUS to the zeitgeist and through these topics off as so much garbage, when the truth is that this “garbage” greatly revived and encouraged McCain’s base.
Likewise during the live thread, people were checking on the DUmmies and they were completely, utterly BUMMED with their candidate’s performace. That is something an “expert” analyst should have a clue about as well.
So don’t try to distill this down to sour grapes. It’s not that people didn’t agree with Fox’s analysis of who won, it’s that the Fox panel was totally out of touch with how the debate operated in the real world.
Even if they had said such and such issues were likely to fire up supporters, or something like that, it would have been closer to “fair and balanced” and INSIGHTFUL than simply yammering on about how nothing much happened here.
I have noticed that even the usually lovable Neil Cavuto has been grumpy and rude to guests lately. He never lets his guests finish these days and he constantly makes snide and obnoxious remarks.
Not like him at all, but I’ve had to stop watching him for now as well. Just don’t need more crappola out of the media.
Smart way to use your time right now. /s
Here’s my own bottom line on this besides the Saudi angle..
Before these debates ALL the so-called pundits, the same ones commenting on the air tonight...said that of the three up-coming debates....this last one on the economy was Obama’s, hands down....McCain was weak in this area and would have no defense, the exact opposite of the first debate on foreign policy....
News Flash. Obama got it handed tohim tonight and all the momentum is McCains now.
Here’s my own bottom line on this besides the Saudi angle..
Before these debates ALL the so-called pundits, the same ones commenting on the air tonight...said that of the three up-coming debates....this last one on the economy was Obama’s, hands down....McCain was weak in this area and would have no defense, the exact opposite of the first debate on foreign policy....
News Flash. Obama got it handed to him tonight and all the momentum is McCains now.
>> Frank Luntz, who declared that is focus group idiots loved Obama
He may have said that, but that’s not the impression I got from the group. Two in the group behaved like Obama supports, and another like a McCain supporter. So take them out of the picture. The others leaned towards McCain on substance but gave Obama credit for style. Who knows if they’ll vote for substance or style.
Why the Fox analysis stunk:
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2106700/posts?page=186#186
through = threw (oops!)
No, of course not.
I am saying that many McCain supporters were VERY HAPPY with the points he made and, in fact, were “literally begging” for McCain to make them. And, again, when he did make them, they were very pleased.
I am saying that Brit & Co. seemed to have no clue that the points they threw off as worthless garbage were actually points that were IMPORTANT to McCain’s supporters. Therefore, McCain’s supporters thought it was IMPORTANT that these points had been made. I.e., Brit & Co. were wrong that these points were worthless.
How can an “expert” analyze a debate and not have a clue about how it might affect a candidate’s supporters?
That is a separate issue than whether someone thinks a candidate “won” the debate. That is what is garbage. If these pundits want to add something of value, something that is “fair” and “balanced,” they ought to look beyond their own lazy noses and figure out more than one dimension that needs to be accounted for.
Look at it this way: which result is more newsworthy-—(1) that a group of talking heads concludes that the debate didn’t “change anyone’s vote” or that it was “full of missed opportunities” or (2) that the candidate’s answers fired up many of his supporters and got them revved for the homestretch?
I’d say result #2.
So, no, it’s not FOX’s “responsibility to make McCain’s arguments for him,” but it is FOX’s responsibility to actually have “experts” with some expertise in analyzing a political event in ALL (or at least more than one) of its dimensions. That is how you make it “fair” and “balanced.”
You ARE aware that he is paralyzed and confined to a wheelchair, hence the "stiff, monotone, corn cob up his..." look, right??
At the end, even Obama knew he had "lost" the debate. The "deer in the headlights" expression and stammering during his closing statement (which he probably had memorized) were priceless.
McCain threw Obama off his stride near the beginning with the "I'm not President Bush" and other statements, stared Obama down through most of the debate, and ended with a well thought out and gracious closing statement.
It didn't make for dramatic TV with a snappy line of the night or sound bite, but I thought it was pretty clear McCain won. I was baffled by the Fox pundits giving it to Obama.
By the end, McCain had also wiped the "Ah, geesh, John, you just don't get it" grin from Obama's face.
I would not knowingly disparage a person with such a condition.
I never saw them. Watching Hume and CO made me so angry I had to turn the TV off.
Having gotten a good night’s sleep, I find I am still angry because no one discussed the substance of the debate last night.
It was as if they were calling plays for an athletic event.
That's exactly how I felt.
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