Mr. Lehrer is Mr. PBS News not NPR News.

Post #43,971 by a6l6e6x 6/29/02 11:31:57 PM Reply	Mr. Lehrer is Mr. PBS News not NPR News. That may be a fine point. I watch Lehrer and the [link\|http://www.pbs.org/newshour/\|News Hour] "religiously" and find him to be a fair man. He did not make the rules that excluded Nader. Other than refusing to be be a moderator on principle, he can not be held responsible for the parties to the debate. Alex "Men occasionally stumble over the truth, but most of them pick themselves up and hurry off as if nothing had happened." -- Winston Churchill (1874-1965)
Post #43,974 by Ashton 6/29/02 11:50:28 PM Reply	My bad. As to Lehrer: Oh Yes He Can be held accountable for the charade he allowed to proceed under his/PBS's (and by inference - NPR's) \ufffdgis! It was a shameful parody of any idea of 'debate'. He became / allowed himself to become: little more than another member of the audience. He AND PBS and ___? altogether demonstrated gutlessness and finally.. irrelevance, that night. IMO. An honest one(s) would have refused to host under these conditions: especially! with the exclusion of anyone but: The One Party With Two Right Wings. I had to think very carefully about the +/- of sending my several checks AND critique of above with each one.. I think PBS deservedly lost many good people's support over that cowardly performance. Ashton PS - I find JL to rarely ask the Prime movers, as they occasionally appear - anything more than pabulum questions. But I no longer watch News Hour regularly anyway; it is only marginally superior to the other Corp-owned talking heads. Now Frontline, Nova etc. continue to Kick Ass. And there is SO Much Ass to Kick.. hence my continued support. There is more and more (ADM !! and more) Corp crap on PBS -- a direct result of the Gingrich successful neutering, and the subsequent Congr. gutlessness to restore this pittance for: One non-commercial US network.
Post #44,023 by a6l6e6x 6/30/02 10:34:15 PM Reply	The "sponsor" - COMMISSION ON PRESIDENTIAL DEBATES If anyone is a culprit it is the Commission on Presidential Debates who decided the criteria for [link\|http://www.debates.org/pages/candsel.html\|candidate selection.] Picking 15% of the poll vote as a minimum, I'll grant you, was not aa arbitrary choice. I would agree that a lower (but > 1) percentage would be better. You don't want a zoo either. For Lehrer to have declined to be the moderator would be to become a news maker and not a news reporter. He would be making a political statement and raising a furor which would destroy the need to be impartial. What do you expect from the press or an umpire? Alex "Men occasionally stumble over the truth, but most of them pick themselves up and hurry off as if nothing had happened." -- Winston Churchill (1874-1965)
Post #44,027 by Ashton 6/30/02 11:09:03 PM Reply	Expect? Guts, not pandering to a set-up, ovinely.
Post #44,057 by Brandioch 7/1/02 2:25:27 AM Reply	Hmmm, think "umpire". Would you umpire a ball game in which the teams both violated your personal viewpoint? Suppose they both refused to allow non-white players or some similar factor. I remember when Perot was on the debates. What I expect is a fully participatory democracy. Where each individual will stand up for what s/he believes is best. I know. It won't happen. :)
Post #43,980 by Brandioch 6/30/02 12:25:32 AM Reply	Silence == support. Particularly with a reputation. This is where it gets a bit tricky. The sponsors wanted him because of his reputation. He used his reputation in an event that was not "fair" (Ralph was banned). He did this knowing that Ralph was banned. Now, someone with some guts would have worn a "Where's Ralph" tee shirt to the event. Someone with fewer guts would have declined. I respect his viewpoint, but not his integrity. I see him a whoring his reputation out. The thing is, if he had made a public issue of it, Ralph might have been included. Which would have led to a completely different and MUCH MORE INFORMATIVE debate. Participatory Democracy. The people who signed the Declaration of Independence knew they'd be killed (and some were) for that action. Yet they did it because they had the guts to risk their lives for their beliefs. Now look at what we have.

Welcome to IWETHEY!