Associated Press

Watching the news online, it was clear what the debate story was today:

Washington Post television critic Tom Shales, in an April 17 article headlined "In Pa. Debate, The Clear Loser Is ABC," described the debate as "another step downward for network news -- in particular ABC News, which hosted the debate from Philadelphia and whose usually dependable anchors, Charlie Gibson and George Stephanopoulos, turned in shoddy, despicable performances." Shales added that the debate "dwelled entirely on specious and gossipy trivia" and "seemed slanted against Obama."

Time magazine's Michael Grunwald, in an April 17 article headlined "The Democrats Play Trivial Pursuit," wrote, "Obama's memoir dripped with contempt for modern gotcha politics, for a campaign culture obsessed with substantively irrelevant but supposedly symbolic gaffes," and added, "Last night at the National Constitution Center, at a Democratic debate that was hyped by ABC as a discussion of serious constitutional issues, America got to see exactly what Obama was complaining about."

In an April 16 article on Editor & Publisher's website, Greg Mitchell wrote, "In perhaps the most embarrassing performance by the media in a major presidential debate in years, ABC News hosts Charles Gibson and George Stephanopoulos focused mainly on trivial issues as Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama faced off in Philadelphia. They, and their network, should hang their collective heads in shame."

You don't need to go to Daily Kos to find cries of assent to these assessments.

Greg Mitchell writes on HuffPo:

In perhaps the most embarrassing performance by the media in a major presidential debate in years, ABC News hosts Charles Gibson and George Stephanopoulos focused mainly on trivial issues as Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama faced off in Philadelphia. They, and their network, should hang their collective heads in shame.

Wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, the health care and mortgage crises, the overall state of the economy and dozens of other pressing issues had to wait for their few moments in the sun as Obama was pressed to explain his recent "bitter" gaffe and relationship with Rev. Wright (seemingly a dead issue) and not wearing a flag pin -- while Clinton had to answer again for her Bosnia trip exaggerations.

Then it was back to Obama to defend his slim association with a former '60s radical -- a question that came out of right-wing talk radio and Sean Hannity on TV, but was delivered by former Bill Clinton aide Stephanopoulos. This approach led to a claim that Clinton's husband pardoned two other '60s radicals. And so on. The travesty continued.

More time was spent on all of this than segments on getting out of Iraq and keeping people from losing their homes and -- you name it. Gibson only got excited complaining that someone might raise his capital gains tax.

The Philly Enquirer's poll has, at the time of this writing, about half of all views rating the questions as "terrible, a waste of time."

Even ABC admitted that the heat was on. As MSNBC noted:

By midafternoon Thursday, more than 15,600 comments were posted on ABC News' Web site, the tone overwhelmingly negative....

..."Why not have Paris Hilton moderate next time?" one poster wrote. One man repeated the word "bad" 48 times. A sampling found opinion was running against the network about 8-to-1.

Did the message sink into the skulls of Gibson and Stephanopoulos?

"The questions were tough and fair and appropriate and relevant," Stephanopoulos told The Associated Press. "We wanted to focus at first on the issues that were not focused on during the last debates."

The criticism comes with the territory, he said. "It's one more sign of how engaged people are over this election," he said.

Engaged on a higher level than ABC was willing to present, apparently.

It didn't help to learn that presumably George Stephanopoulos was throwing questions seeded by right-wing commentators.

But watch the NewsHour, and the story is all about the petty issues.

LINDA DOUGLASS: Well, certainly they expected the questions on Reverend Wright. Certainly they expected the questions on the statements that he made about small-town America being economically depressed and turning to guns and religion. They expected all of that.

But it was the relentlessness of it, the fact that they didn't get into health care, or gas prices, or college tuition, or whatever in the beginning that I think took them aback. They were prepared for many other kinds of questions.

And you could see that Obama himself was becoming irritated. But the one thing you can't do in a situation like this, if you are the candidate who feels aggrieved by how the moderators handled you, the one thing you cannot do is blame the press for the questions they ask. That never works as a tactic.

Enough about armchair quarterbacking. What about the facts?

MARGARET WARNER: So, Brooks, in defending himself, based on your analysis, did Obama stretch the truth in any way?

BROOKS JACKSON, FactCheck.org: Well, yes. One of the things for which we're criticizing him is that he said that, in regard to that lapel pin, the American flag lapel pin, he said, "I never said that I had refused to wear it."

Well, in fact, less than a year ago in Iowa, he told a TV interviewer that after 9/11 he had decided not to wear the pin because it had become, in his view, a substitute for true patriotism, which is upsetting a lot of people and being talked about.

So he's engaging in a little bit of rewriting his own history.

You really have to see the video where Brooks Jackson and Linda Douglass smirk with self-satisfied pride over their easy proclaimations as "the facts."

And then:

MARGARET WARNER: And, Dan, do the Obama people feel that some of these issues that were brought up last night, these personal issues or things he said or associations he's had, do they think they're really invalid or do they actually think these are potential vulnerabilities?

DAN BALZ: Well, I think they certainly recognize that the controversy over Reverend Wright is likely to be a problem in the general election. I think at this point they think they have weathered most of these in the nomination battle.

All of the polling that came out over the last few days shows no particular damage from the comments he made at the San Francisco fundraiser about how small-town Americans are bitter about their situation and cling to guns and religion and things like that.

I think they believe that -- I mean, I know they were quite worried when that erupted. I think they think that that has not been a serious problem.

Again, the Old Media are stuck in their Old Story. Even when they are the story. Even in the face of criticism, they insist upon focusing on trivia rather than on things that matter.

Lapel pins? Who "loves America more"? Puhleez! I'd have expected more from the NewsHour, but they were as lazy as ABC. Something to remember during the next pledge break.

Americans who are not Republicans are enemies of America.

That's the message throughout the latest swift-boat smears on Barack Obama, faithfully passed on by our mainstream media, whose measure of accuracy seems to stop at the lips of anyone opening his mouth.

Conservative Republican consultant Keith Appell, who worked with the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth, said Obama's opposition to the war will create a "striking contrast between McCain the war hero and Obama the poster child for the anti-war movement."

"If you are McCain, you want to play up the decorated war hero, loves his country, served his country," Appell said. "You want to play those themes up as much as possible, especially in comparison to Obama and his role in the anti-war movement."

Of course, these same partisans excused George W. Bush's and Dick Cheney's draft dodging, and attacked 2004 Democratic nominee John Kerry for being unpatriotic, even though he, too, was a decorated war veteran.

But John Kerry was not a Republican, therefore not a true "patriot" according to the swifties. And that's at the heart of it.

The Conservative Patriotism of the "reinvented" Republican Party is defined thus: Party. Duty. Expedience.

Oh, honor and country may be on the list somewhere, retained for rhetorical purposes. And let's not forget Fire and Brimstone to keep the fear hormone levels high.

So no matter who the Democratic nominee is, he or she could not possibly be a "patriot" because he or she will not put the Republican Party's interests ahead of the nation's.

Thus Barack Obama is attacked with lies, such as that he's a Muslim or he refuses to say the Pledge of Allegiance.

Last summer, Obama was photographed by Time magazine at an event in Iowa standing with his hands folded....

It has been repeatedly reported that the moment came during the Pledge of Allegiance, but that's not the case.

Don't let truth get in the way of a good swift-boating.

The silliness of swiftie thinking is outweighed only by their utter contempt for non-Party members and their deep pockets from which they pay for expression of that contempt.

Of course, the swifties don't care about the truth. At least so it seems from their vitriolic television campaigns. To them, Obama is already guilty for being a non-Republican, so petty things like truth or honor don't figure into their mantra. (Only weak "liberals" are interested in truth or honor, and thus want to undermine America.)

And so the onslaught continues, even getting to the point of making pin-wearing a measure of patriotism.

"First he kicked his American flag pin to the curb. Now Barack Obama has a new round of patriotism problems. Wait until you hear what the White House hopeful didn't do during the singing of the national anthem," said Steve Doocy, co-host of "Fox and Friends" on the Fox News Channel.

"He felt it OK to come out of the closet as the domestic insurgent he is," former radio host Mark Williams said on Fox.

I never knew wearing an American flag pin was a prerequisite for patriotism.

Things the swifties approve of? Probably the cheap "patriotism" demonstrated in the grit-stained flags pasted onto the backsides of their cars, the sweat-stained flag t-shirts, and let's not forget the American flag underwear, red, white, blue and ready for skid-marks.

Actual respect for the flag does not even enter their minds.

The flag should not be draped over the hood, top, sides, or back of a vehicle or of a railroad train or a boat....

The flag should never be used as wearing apparel, bedding, or drapery....

The flag should never be fastened, displayed, used, or stored in such a manner as to permit it to be easily torn, soiled, or damaged in any way....

The flag should never be used for advertising purposes in any manner whatsoever. It should not be embroidered on such articles as cushions or handkerchiefs and the like, printed or otherwise impressed on paper napkins or boxes or anything that is designed for temporary use and discard....

Registered Republican voters not part of the hate brigade must really be in despair. Even Ronald Reagan wasn't this hateful, attacking Americans as enemies of America. It's amazing that some people actually believe the swiftie tripe, but the peddlers push it hard enough, and in enough of their bought-and-paid-for broadcast outlets, that maybe it's not surprising. The Big Lie is a tried and proven technique. Joseph Goebbels must be a true inspiration to the conservative propagandists. After all, didn't the Nazi's do well with rhetorical campaigns pitting German against German? They were quite effective at it, you have to admit.

He had been institutionalized for mental health ... by his own parents.

He was on mind-alterning prescription medication.

He pushed his girlfriend around, part of his "abusive" behavior.

He had a history of cutting himself.

He bought all four of his guns at one shop -- two of them just a few days before.

But what was the AP lead?

Steven Kazmierczak had the look of a boyish graduate student — except for the disturbing tattoos that covered his arms.

Yeah. Tattoos are the issue here. Right.

Let's also note that he had a computer (uh-oh) and was apparently drinking large quantities of energy drinks. He also played chess. (Ooooooh!)

He had served in the Army for six months (and current status not quite clear). He also "served as an officer in two student groups dedicated to promoting understanding of the criminal justice system."

He was also known to watch Oprah on weekday afternoons. (Okay, that part is made up. But those tattoos -- obviously that's where the story lies.)

This announcement is pretty astounding.

Today the Associated Press (AP) and NowPublic
announced that they have agreed to a deal that will bring NowPublic's
citizen content into AP's news gathering network. According to the
press release, the two companies will work together to explore ways of
involving NowPublic's on-the-ground network of news contributors with
AP's breaking news coverage – increasing the worlds access to news as
it happens.

To put this into perspective, on any given day, more than half the
world's population sees news from AP – so this is an unparalleled
distribution opportunity for citizen created content and contributors to NowPublic.

NowPublic has been a leader in the citizen journalism revolution. For a cornerstone of the mainstream media to open its gates to citizen journalists is revolutionary for them (if rather late from the perspective of those of us on the outside of those gates). Good on the AP!