Which brings us to today, and, if the ABC suits thought, hey, it’s Friday … Almost the weekend … The worst is behind us … Well, they had a little surprise.
Remember that woman from the debate last night who the moderators showed videotape of asking whether Barack Obama “believes in the flag”? Her name is Nash McCabe.
I remember thinking it was sort of odd to have a couple one-off uses of ordinary voter questions when it didn’t really seem like it was part of the format. But I was too distracted by the general inanity of the debate to focus on this issue too closely.
Well, it turns out TPM Reader JL did give it some thought. And he came up with something very interesting (see JL’s post at the DrexelDems blog). He did a little googling and found out Nash is pretty popular with the traveling press now in Pennsylvania. It turns out McCabe was featured in an April 4th story in the Times which begins like this …”
What an incredible coincidence!
What an incredible stroke of unbelievable good luck?
Shoot, Norville Barnes, a recipent of a boatload of dumb, good luck as any, pales in comparison into the pot-o-gold ABC stumbled upon.
This woman, Nash McCabe, just happened to be out there … Just happened to live in Latrobe, PA … And an ABC producer, wandering around the vast state, looking for the one voice, the one golden voice, who could epitomize the burning issue, that buzzed about item at every dinner table, the linch pin to this years’ election …
Who could ask Barack Obama about the Lapel Flag Pin?
Where was this All-American John or Jane Doe?
Who could ask;
Senator Obama, I have a question, and I want to know if you believe in the American flag. I am not questioning your patriotism, but all our servicemen, policemen and EMS wear the flag. I want to know why you don’t.
The always insightful and entertaining Attytood had puzzlement, as well;
As I watched her question, what I wondered — and I imagine many other viewers wondered as well — was where on earth did ABC find this representative of my home state. As a journalist, I kind of assumed that ABC sent a film crew to western Pa., and then culled the most provocative questions from the people that they found. Silly me. In fact, ABC News found Nash McCabe the old-fashioned way — they read about her, and her thing with the American flag, in the New York Times earlier this month:
LATROBE, Pa. – Ask whom she might vote for in the coming presidential primary election and Nash McCabe, 52, seems almost relieved to be able to unpack the dossier she has been collecting in her head.
It is not about whom she likes, but more a bill of particulars about why she cannot vote for Senator Barack Obama of Illinois.
“How can I vote for a president who won’t wear a flag pin?” Mrs. McCabe, a recently unemployed clerk typist, said in a booth at the Valley Dairy luncheonette in this quiet, small city in western Pennsylvania.
Greg Sargent, of TPM Election Central interviewed Stephanopoulos the other day;
In an interview with me moments ago, Stephanopoulos strongly defended his handling of the debate. He dismissed criticism that it had focused too heavily on “gotcha” questions, arguing that they had gone to the heart of the “electability” that, he said, is forefront in the minds of voters evaluating the two Dems.
Forefront in the minds of voters …
The NYT interview with Nash McCabe was published back on January 4th … Meaning it was taken a day, or more before that …
That’s over three-months ago!
So Nash McCabe wasn’t located at random at all. Instead, someone at ABC News decided that they wanted to go after Obama on the patriotism issue, and they actively sought a Pennsylvanian who they knew wanted to bring it up. I assume they thought it would sound better if “a typical voter” asked the question instead of Charlie Gibson. “You see, we’re only raising the issue the voters really care about,” they can claim.
I have to wonder, if off-air (we already know what he did on-air), Sean Hannity coached Stephanopoulos to beat down Obama on the Lapel Flag Pin as well …
It’s 11PM, Do You Know Where Your Lapel Flag Pin Is? Links
D-Mac: Sen. Obama, Are You The Devil?
Steve Benen: About that flag-pin question…
dday: We’re marching on ABC/Disney in Burbank today – armed with flag pins!
Americans by nature have bigger hearts than they do brains. I was camping on our first voyage of the year.
Ordinary people apparently are getting wise to the crap media presents. I am talking 50 year old born here, lived their whole live here suburban just your average Joe Americans.
Well, I didn’t utter the dreaded Pavlovian keyword, I after all was on vacation.
They brought it up, they did. New World Order, and they were in the company of an expert on that very subject.
At a charity dinner in 2002 or 2003, I sat at a table with Fox newsman Brit Hume. A local guy had met him on a plane, and asked him to be the keynote speaker. (The benefit was for conversion of an old convent building in Pittsfield into senior citizen housing. The project still has not got off the ground.)
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p>At some point during the meal, Hume noticed that I had on a flag pin. He verbalized his approval, and said that he could not believe that national news anchors were going on TV without wearing American flag pins. It was shocking and inexcusable to him! This was his yardstick for patriotism. The only newsman who had a pass from Hume was Peter Jennings, because he was a Canadian citizen.
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p>I don’t know how the sponsors of the event – also seated at this table – felt about this diatribe, as none of them was wearing a flag pin. I admit, I was an elected official at the time, and I had three or four flag pins that I rotated on suit lapels in the post-9/11 era. Like the yellow ribbon magnets that graced every car during 2002, flag pins have long ago faded from popularity in this region. (I can’t imagine that the pins are commonly worn in Latrobe, PA, although it would be interesting to see some footage showing the average lapel in that city.)
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p>So, yeah. This woman was rationalizing the fact that she doesn’t want to vote for Obama. She had latched onto one “issue.” I would not be at all surprised if her opinion had been shaped long ago by some Fox news editorial. Shame on ABC for pandering to the superficial. The geneaology of this trap can be traced to the influence of Fox News on voters and on ABC.