Weekend Watchdog Wrap-Up

Another 0-for-3 week for the Sunday shows, as they failed to ask any of the Watchdog’s questions.

ABC’s George Stephanopoulos did not force Sen. John McCain to respond to citizen questioner from last week’s presidential debate, who lost her brother in Iraq and told NBC that none of the GOP candidates answered her question on how they would get us out of Iraq.

However, Stephanopoulos does deserve some praise for pressing McCain on permanent bases — an issue of past Watchdog posts.

After asking multiple times if McCain supports an “open-ended, unconditional commitment,” “perpetual war” and “permanent bases” in Iraq, McCain said, “No, not forever, but certainly, you would be there for a long period of time in a support role in many ways.”

When asked if that meant 30 or 40 years, McCain said, “Oh, I don’t know.”

Face The Nation’s Bob Schieffer did not force Sen. Joe Lieberman to answer the question he ducked earlier in the week on CNN — since troops in Iraq told a reporter they were afraid to tell Lieberman their true feelings about the war, is he “getting the real picture”?

(Additionally, when Lieberman said he supported a military strike in Iran, the only follow-up question asked by Schieffer was “Would you go in on the ground, or could you do that from the air?”)

Finally, neither Schieffer nor Fox News Sunday’s Chris Wallace even mentioned global warming in their respective interviews with White House Press Secretary Tony Snow, despite the major news last week when President Bush thwarted a consensus among the G-8 nations for a firm cap on greenhouse gas emissions.

Author:

Leave a Comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.