From WNYC in New York, this is NPR's On the Media. I'm Bob Garfield.

And I'm Brooke Gladstone. Very soon, Pennsylvanians will cast their votes in what may be the decisive Democratic primary.

It's been a long time since the last one. Not much has happened beyond the usual shadowboxing commentators cling to in the dog

days of a campaign. But apparently there was enough fodder for ABC newsmen Charles Gibson and

George Stephanopoulos to hold what many Democrats have called the worst debate ever. Questions about

Obama's pastor, his remark about bitter rural Americans, his

lack of a flagpin, Clinton's claim to have braved Bosnian sniper fire. These so-called electability

issues took about 45 minutes to cover in what Nielsen Media Research reported was the most

watched debate of the campaign, 10.7 million people.

The next morning, more than 14,000 comments had been posted on ABC News's website, mostly negative,

but conservative pundits approved.

Mark Jerkowitz, associate director of the Project for Excellence in Journalism, said it did yield some nuggets.

The actual newsmaking item that seemed to generate the most attention was the idea that Hillary Clinton did acknowledge that she thought Obama could actually beat when pressed, could beat John McCain in the general election, because this comes after a spate of

coverage that suggests that her appeal to the superdelegates has been he cannot win.

Do you think Senator Obama can do that? Can he win?

Yes, yes, yes. Now, I think that I can do a better job.

So in terms of somebody saying something that actually seemed newsworthy, that was number one.

Number two was the sense that Barack was very much on the defensive, unhappy, and sort of

back on his heels in this particular debate.

Well, I think there's no doubt that I can see how people were offended. It's not the first time

that I've made a statement that was mangled up.

It's not going to be the last.

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