Dear ABC News: We're Mad, and We Aren't Gonna Take it Anymore!

Unbelievably bad. Transparently biased. Tabloid journalism. Disgusting. Immediately blasted by other media outlets as hack journalism. Pompous. Fox News-worthy. Worst of all - irrelevant. In an election cycle in which the Democratic race is so hotly contested, and in a cycle when the electorate is facing war, recession, a mortgage crisis, healthcare failure, immigration woes, Executive Branch authorized torture, skyrocketing college tuition, the Katrina aftermath, infrastructure failures, manufacturing jobs being shipped overseas, and a slew of other issues that negatively affect the lives of the American people, your moderators (one of whom would have been disqualified for the job by most other news agencies due to his obvious conflict of interest) chose to turn their 2 hours of national exposure into a circus of "gotcha" attacks mostly leveled at Senator Obama. How stupid do you think the American public is? Charlie Gibson, who I used to respect before last night's shameful performance, was forced to twice proclaim "The crowd is turning on me," while on air last night, responding to the unrest in the audience at the National Constitution Center. Multiply that response by the millions of viewers watching at home, and I think you'll have an accurate view of how this right-wing framed smear of a "debate" went over last night. Charles Gibson and George Stephanopoulos owe the American people an apology.

Is ABC proud of the level of questions asked by these moderators last night? Questioning someone's apparel - wearing a $1 flag lapel pin (probably made in China) - is the new standard of how we should judge whether a person is fit for the office of President of the United States? And Mr. Gibson's justification of the question: citing that "it's all over the internet"? That's what passes for rigorous vetting by the press these days? Or how about, "Does your pastor love America as much as you do?" First of all, how can anyone know the heart of another person, and secondly, who cares? Rev. Wright isn't running for Office... After that risible question, I half expected Mr. Stephanopoulos to ask Senator Obama if his dad was stronger than Rev. Wright's father. And I have news for both Mr. Stephanopoulos and his collaborator on the question about Mr. Ayers - Sean Hannity (do you have Mr. Hannity on your payroll since he's doing your journalist's job for him?), the 60's are over. No one is concerned about Senator Obama knowing a former member of The Weather Underground whose illegal activities occurred when Senator Obama was 8 years old. One half of the debate you televised last night was absolute rubbish. Completely uninformative. The second half was only marginally better. I promise you that the American public at large is much more concerned about the real economic issues they face, than they are about Charles Gibson's personal worries about his own capital gains taxes...

Your news department perpetrated a fraud on the American people last night. I find it interesting that NBC News fired Maria Shriver due to just a perception of a conflict of interest, while your agency chose to allow a former employee of one of the two remaining Democratic candidates in the race for the White House to moderate the debate last night. Thank goodness for the advent of Netflix and the expansion of the cable market. There is a plethora of quality news and entertainment programming being broadcast and distributed in this country - and I will be watching that instead of ABC from now on. And I'm letting your advertisers know.