Public Radio to the Rescue in the Field of Presidential Debates
Wednesday, December 5th, 2007
I know that readers of this blog are probably sick of me talking about the primary debates. I also understand that I sound like a broken record when it comes to the failings of the televised debates for both parties. I am here today to say that I have heard the best debate in a long time about the issues and it involved no visual elements whatsoever. National Public Radio and Iowa Public Radio have done what a dozen plus debates have failed to do: get candidates to talk about issues.
There were parts of the Democratic debate on December 4th that were uncomfortable or imperfect. The question about buying Chinese toys for Christmas was a throwaway question and Christopher Dodd seemed to criticize and make light of the question all in one answer. I couldn’t possibly blame NPR for the failings of political dialogue; that blame is best left to commercial media, the parties and the American public. The NPR debate format may not have solved all of the problems with American politics but it gave a game plan for future debates to succeed.
NPR used a few questions from listeners and activists to guide the debate. The candidates present in Iowa for the debate were given room to roam when answering instead of being penned in by the fact that the debate host had to get through dozens of ridiculous questions. The debate was more civil even when Hillary Clinton and John Edwards got into a tiff about the condemnation of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard by Congress. I am no Luddite and I enjoy technology but my hope is that we have more radio debates in the future. It is time to stop messing around with all of these crazy debate formats and spend hours on public radio listening to candidates have substantive conversations about the real issues facing America. Down with YouTube, up with old time radio!
