Dump the debates

By Libby

I really tried to watch the debate but I was pretty well bored comatose about 30 minutes into it. I found myself wandering around the new apartment, cleaning and unpacking instead and realized it's because the whole format sucks. This isn't a debate, it's just a soundbite fest - another empty excuse for real news programming. If I wanted to spend 90 minutes listening mostly to Chris Matthews, I'd watch his stupid poli-gossip show.

I don't like the whole moderated question format. What's the point of asking questions if they don't have time to answer? Matthews and Politico are clearly giving more time to the frontrunners so why even bother to include the lesser known candidates? If they're going to do it in that format, then they should go down the line and let every candidate answer the same question. It couldn't be more obvious that the whole event is entirely manipulated by the hosts.

They had ninety minutes and ten candidates. It would have been much more informative if they had simply given each guy nine minutes to speak continously and lay out their platforms. Draw straws at the beginning to decide the order to make it fair. That would have served the interests of the public instead of the business concerns of the media.

We used to have a more informed electorate because under the old Fairness Doctrine it would have been mandatory to give the candidates equal time and the networks used to put the delivery of news ahead of profits. Media consolidation changed all that. If we brought back the Fairness Doctrine and broke up the media conglomerates it could bring some substance back into the electoral process. It certainly couldn't make it any worse.