The debate that ABC News hosted was a blight upon everything the media should stand for. Rather than focusing on the issues, debate moderators George Stephenopolis and Charlie Gibson decided to go for a hatchet job.

For more than 45 minutes they focused on controversies rather than the issues that Americans deserve to hear about. To further compound this distressing lack of any sort of substance for the first half of debate, ABC News ignored basic journalistic ethics by letting Stephenopolis, a former member of the Clinton administration, moderate without revealing his conflict of interest.

This “debate” was a hatchet job. Rather than focusing on anything of importance they decided to try to impugn the patriotism of a candidate with “Gotcha!” questions that have been answered time and time again. Rather than talking about the economy or Iraq or a host of other problems, they focused on “Do you love the flag?” and guilt by association smears used to help the wife of the moderator’s former employer.

Even when they turned to issues after more than 50 minutes, the debate remained shameful. Every question asked had a right-wing tilt, trying to force both Democrats to admit to the superiority of the Republican point of view rather than argue their own position. Moderators should be neutral parties, making sure that the participants stay on topic and follow the rules, rather than trying to brow beat them into accepting ideologically charged premises and arguing down at them like Gibson did.