I said, earlier, that there was a lot of anger in the journalistic community at ABC for the way they handled the last debate. This isn't about candidates or preferences or parties. It's about the idea that our profession is entrusted to do more than chase ratings and hunt controversy. We have a duty to inform, to turn the political conversation into a national conversation, and ensure that not too much is lost in the process. What ABC did, however, was the opposite: They played up all that was useless and uninformative and ugly and sensationalistic in the race, suggesting, to the country, that this race is nothing but meaningless entertainment, and politics in general is an irrelevant enterprise that should be played for shouts and giggles. One of the products of that widely felt anger is letter below, which I'm a proud signatory to.
