From the Tribune:
"They are the most ludicrous, useless element of the entire political campaign," CBS News' Jeff Greenfield said Thursday. "I cannot fathom what anyone gets out of these things."I wish news organizations would collectively agree to stay away from the spin room following the debates. Nothing of substance ever emerges. They could also leave their own analysts behind as well (or at least scale back from 11 to two or three). It's awfully silly to hear media folks talking about undecided voters, average Americans, etc. This is true in general but especially true after debates. Why not just put average folks on television? I honestly don't think Paul Begala has a better grasp on the thoughts of an undecided voter than an actual undecided voter.
"As this thing has developed or mutated, it's become a parody of itself," Greenfield said. "Some of these people will pour into the spin room before the debate even ends, which is particularly amusing because you kind of wonder what would happen if, in the last seconds, one of the candidates said, 'All praise to Satan.' These poor schlubs would still say, 'I thought he did a pretty good job.' They've become utterly useless."
2 Comments:
CNN started to do this with its iReporter program. I watched a roundtable with some of them today and it was pretty interesting, but I agree it would be nice, overall, to focus on real voters' reactions instead of the spin monsters.
But I do have a soft spot for Paul Begala. I always used to go to the Crossfire tapings in DC to see him and Carville take on Novak and Carlson, way back in the day...
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