Dems Quash CBS Debate

Yesterday evening, the Democratic National Committee announced that it was putting the kibosh on CBS's December 10 debate between Democratic presidential candidates.

"Hollywood's television and film writers have been on strike since Nov. 5, and most of the Democratic candidates had pledged not to cross picket lines to attend the debate, which had been set to take place in a studio at CBS Television City in Los Angeles," reports The New York Times. "That location has been picketed most days since the start of the strike, and no aspiring Democratic presidential candidate would have wanted to be caught on camera crossing the picket lines."

Afterwards, writes Nikki Finke on Deadline Hollywood, a "bitchslapping contest" broke out between CBS and the WGA, as evidenced by CBS' "doozie" of a press release:

Two weeks ago, CBS officials, in an effort of cooperation, contacted the WGA leadership and asked them to suspend the picketing for just a couple of hours on December 10 so the Democratic presidential debate could go on and the democratic process could be served. Our request was met with silence.