Bloomberg ABC get Brush From McCain/Obama Debate

Both John McCain and Barack Obama rejected an offer Sunday made by Mayor Bloomberg and ABC over their insistence of a monopoly primetime broadcast. Both candidates did not want it limited to one network. While I am sure the Disney Corporation is overjoyed that Bloomberg tried to cork the bottle on this historic event with their ABC Corporation, the loser here is New York City.

The deal was to have the first town hall meeting in the largest city in the world at the Federal Hall in Manhattan. When the deal from ABC was exclusive it was turned down. Since then ABC News spokesman Jeffery Schneider said the network is open to discussing broader distribution and is trying not to hold the deal back.

While McCain is enthusiastically embracing a 10 town hall type meetings with Obama to air their policy differences Barack Obama’s campaign has only made vague commitments. There is no telling how many will actually happen and the first may be one of the last.