The Backlash Against ABC

"The first half of the entire debate was taken up with questions that are not in the forefront of most people's minds, both in Pennsylvania and around the country," he said. "The notion that these questions were the most prominent was offensive and unfortunate. It's amazing that the media keep flogging issues like this."

But Laura Ingraham, the conservative radio host, noted that Gibson and Stephanopoulos also asked the candidates about Iraq, Israel, gas prices, capital gains taxes, affirmative action and a Supreme Court case on the D.C. handgun ban.

"That's pretty substantive," she said. "It was one of the best debates of the entire political season, because it addressed substance and character at the same time . . . Members of the media who believe Barack Obama is going to sail into the general election without having to tackle these questions several times are deluding themselves."

The debate about the debate -- which drew 10.7 million viewers, the most of this long campaign season -- focused on whether such controversies as Obama's "bitter" remarks, his relationship with his former pastor and Clinton's Bosnia flub are meaningless inside-the-Beltway flaps. The subjects have drawn saturation news coverage, and the Illinois senator made a major speech on Wright and racial issues. But Mitchell dismissed the controversies as old, and Shales called them "specious and gossipy trivia that already has been hashed and rehashed."

Much of the reaction broke along ideological lines. From the right, New York Times columnist David Brooks wrote that ABC's performance was "excellent," adding: "The journalist's job is to make politicians uncomfortable, to explore evasions, contradictions and vulnerabilities."

The liberal advocacy arm of MoveOn.org, which has endorsed Obama, said it will run an ad against ABC if 100,000 people sign a petition accusing the moderators of abusing "the public trust" by asking "trivial questions . . . that only political insiders care about."

Among liberal bloggers, Josh Marshall of Talking Points Memo said ABC's questions were based on "frivolous points . . . that presumed the correctness of Republican agenda items." And Steve Benen of the Carpetbagger Report said the debate was a "travesty" that "marked a new low for the media freak-show."

On Gibson's "World News" last night, ABC said "thousands of angry viewers" had posted comments on its Web site, one complaining of "shoddy journalism" and another saying "Shame on you, Charlie and George. We deserve better." The network said there were also positive comments.

ABC correspondent Jake Tapper defended his colleagues in an interview, saying: "They were tougher on Obama, yes. He's the front-runner. By any empirical standard, many members of the media don't seem to want to ask Senator Obama tough questions, and Senator Obama doesn't seem to want to answer them. This is the 21st debate. It is the only one where people have complained that the moderators were tougher on Barack Obama than on Hillary Clinton or any other candidate. How on earth is that possible?"

Some critics, including MSNBC's Keith Olbermann, pounced on the question about Ayers, saying that conservative radio hosts Sean Hannity and Steve Malzberg had suggested it when Stephanopoulos appeared on their programs this week.

But Stephanopoulos said he had been following the issue since the Politico reported it in February. "What finally tipped the balance on whether to ask it or not was that as far as we could tell, Obama had never answered the question," he said.

And now, even more reaction to the debate. National Review's Stephen Spruiell says the so-called gaffes matter: