MoveOn.org Creates Petition to Protest ABC's Debate

The liberal outrage over Wednesday's Democrat presidential debate on ABC continues to mount.

On Friday, billionaire George Soros's MoveOn.org published a petition at its website, along with a video (embedded right), asking Americans to protest "[debate] moderators [that] abuse the public trust every time they ask trivial questions about gaffes and 'gotchas' that only political insiders care about."

The following text hysterically accompanies the petition:

Editor & Publisher called this week's ABC presidential debate "perhaps the most embarrassing performance by the media in a major presidential debate in years."

Moderators George Stephanopolous and Charlie Gibson spent the first 50 minutes obsessed with distractions that only political insiders care about--gaffes, polling numbers, the stale Rev. Wright story, and the old-news Bosnia story. And, channelling Karl Rove, they directed a video question to Barack Obama asking if he loves the American flag or not. Seriously.

Enough is enough. The public needs the media to stop hurting the national dialogue in this important election year. Can you sign the petition to ABC and other media outlets and pass it on to friends who are also fed up?

A compiled petition with your individual comment will be presented to ABC and other media.

In a related matter, a liberal political action group in California called Courage Campaign, whose partners include MoveOn.org, has organized a rally on Friday to protest the ABC debate:

Please join us at ABC/Disney's headquarters in Burbank from 4-7 p.m on FRIDAY to protest and pass out flag pins to ABC/Disney employees leaving their Disney corporate office.

Your mission: Ask ABC/Disney employees whether they can pass their own flag-pin litmus test: "Are you patriotic enough to wear a flag-pin? Remember, you can't be a patriot without a pin!"

Bear in mind that these people think Keith Olbermann is a journalist, and deserves to not only be the moderator for presidential debates, but also be an anchor during MSNBC's coverage of primaries.

Isn't it delicious that folks who have the nerve to call themselves "progressives" can't see the hypocrisy?

Of course, regardless of all the protests, Wednesday's debate was the most watched of any so far this campaign season. As reported by the New York Times Thursday (emphasis added throughout):

More than 10 million viewers tuned into Wednesday’s Democratic debate on ABC, making it the most-watched debate of the primary election season.

The debate, the first to air on a weeknight on a broadcast network, attracted an average of 10.7 million viewers between 8 and 10 p.m., according to Nielsen Media Research.

Maybe more important, the number of viewers peaked midway through the program -- meaning people LIKED what they saw:

Viewership of the debate peaked between 8:30 and 9 p.m. with 11.8 million viewers, topping the “reality” fare of “Deal or No Deal” on NBC and “Big Brother” on CBS.

TelevisionWeek put it best Thursday (emphasis added):

In Philadelphia, the broadcast scored an 18 rating (meaning 18% of the TV homes in the market were tuned to the debate) and a 27 share (meaning 27% of all TV sets in use in the market were tuned to the debate).

“That’s like an NFL game,” Dave Davis, the executive VP in charge of ABC News programming and special events such as the debate, told TelevisionWeek.

What does this all mean? Well, clearly, the nation doesn't share the views of the extreme-left in this country.

Maybe this is why MSNBC's ratings are so abysmal, and New York Times subscribers continue to plummet ALONG with the value of its stock!