NEW YORK -- Anger at ABC News over the approach its moderators took in this week's Democratic debate continued to spill forth online Friday, with many people writing that they will no longer watch the network's newscasts.
The fierce criticism of the questions posed by moderators Charles Gibson and George Stephanopoulos to Sen. Barack Obama comes as ABC's "World News With Charles Gibson" has been locked in a tight race with "NBC Nightly News With Brian Williams" to be the top-rated network evening newscast.
Whether the controversy will dampen viewership of ABC News' flagship broadcast remains to be seen. But in many of the 20,000-plus comments posted on ABCNews.com, viewers said the tone of the debate undermined ABC's credibility and soured them on the network.
"I can't trust that you could ever deliver a fair and balanced news story after the debate," read one comment posted Friday morning. "My choice will be to tune in elsewhere."
Jon Banner, executive producer of "World News," said he did not think the heated reaction would affect viewership of the broadcast.
"There are a lot of things that go into the performance and the ratings of the evening newscasts," he said. "We will continue to cover this election from a position of strength. I would venture to say that our political coverage is the best in the business.
"It's a free country," he added. "If people want to stop watching, they'll stop watching. But I'm hopeful they'll stick with us."
The criticism began shortly after Wednesday's 90-minute debate in Philadelphia, the first half of which was dominated by questions to Obama about his electability. Among other matters, Gibson and Stephanopoulos pressed the candidate about incendiary remarks made by his onetime pastor and about Obama's association with a 1960s radical.
Many media critics disparaged the debate's focus, and supporters of the Illinois senator decried the line of questioning as trivial and irrelevant. ABC News' website was immediately bombarded with posts complaining about the tone. Comments kept pouring in Friday.
"This was tabloid TV at best, not what I expected from ABC or Charlie Gibson," wrote one. "Some of us actually live in the real world and care much more about real issues like food and gas prices, losing our health care, etc., not what someone said in church or 40 years ago."
"This was a sad day for ABC," read another post. "It was my last time to consider watching ABC evening news. . . . Peter Jennings would have NEVER done this."
