if you're interested in American democracy . . .

[realthog]

. . . and the media's contribution to its current unhealthy state, there's an article of relevance by Will Bunch at http://www.philly.com/philly/blogs/attytood/An_open_letter_to_Charlie_Gibson_and_George_Stephanapoulos.html . It starts: 

An open letter to Charlie Gibson and George Stephanapoulos

Dear Charlie Gibson and George Stephanopoulos,

It's hard to know where to begin with this, less than an hour after you signed off from your Democratic presidential debate here in my hometown of Philadelphia, a televised train wreck that my friend and colleague Greg Mitchell has already called, quite accurately, "a shameful night for the U.S. media." It's hard because -- like many other Americans -- I am still angry at what I just witnessed, so angry that it's hard to even type accurately because my hands are shaking. Look, I know that "media criticism" -- especially when it's one journalist speaking to another -- tends to be a genteel, collegial thing, but there's no genteel way to say this.

Passed on to me by frostokovich -- to whom many thanks. Recommended reading.

LATER: There are further useful articles on the subject at http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/04/17/AR2008041700013.html?hpid%3Dtopnews&sub=AR and http://www.ourfuture.org/blog-entry/guess-they-didnt-get-our-questions

Still Later: The publisher seems to have altered the URL to http://www.philly.com/philly/blogs/attytood/An_open_letter_to_Charlie_Gibson_and_George_Stephanopoulos.html ; just before your conspiracy theorizing moves into high gear, it's a correction of the spelling of Stephanopoulos's name.