Los Angeles Times Endorses Citizens' Debate Commission

Editors' note: This endorsement for the Citizens' Debate Commission (CDC) was the most important media support to date. The Christian Science Monitor, The Oregonian and The Seattle Times are among other daily papers to endorse the effort. For readers new to this campaign, the CDC is a new organization first instigated by ReclaimDemocracy.org in 2000. We helped initiate the coalition effort and now serve on the governing board. Links to much more information follow the article.

The L.A. Times editorial: Raise your hand if you stayed awake through all three presidential debates between George W. Bush and Al Gore in 2000.

Right. With pre-selected questions, deferential moderators and minimal follow-up queries, televised presidential debates in recent years have devolved into yawners that turn off more voters than they enlighten. No surprise that the audience for these glorified photo ops has plummeted; 25 million fewer Americans saw the 2000 debates than the 1992 face-off. That drop in viewership is reflected in basement-level voter turnout.

The problem is that the Commission on Presidential Debates, the nonprofit corporation that has sponsored the debates since 1988, runs this contest largely in the interests of the two major parties, not the voters. Commission members - the big-name representatives for the Democratic and Republican standard-bearers - agree to exclude third-party candidates, even those like Ralph Nader and Pat Buchanan who draw significant voter support in the polls. Moreover, by negotiating every detail in advance - including the shape of the podiums, the space that candidates must keep between themselves and, of course, the nature of the questioning - they ensure that the meetings yield mostly chewed-over sound bites.

The upstart Citizens Debate Commission believes this year's debates could be more illuminating. The recently formed bipartisan [actually nonpartisan] includes heavyweights like Heritage Foundation founding President Paul Weyrich, Jehmu Greene of Rock the Vote, and TransAfrica Forum founder Randall Robinson, along with a growing roster of organizational backers. They want a more spontaneous format and a bigger crowd on stage. Follow-up questions should challenge evasive or misleading answers, and there should be some candidate-to-candidate questioning, as well as rebuttals.

Third-party candidates can raise pressing issues and energize voters. Some even have a chance of victory, or, as Nader demonstrated four years ago, they can play the spoiler. That's why the commission believes that debates should include serious alternative candidates. To avoid a circus, it would limit participation to those who qualify for enough state ballots to make an electoral college majority possible and who achieve at least 5% voter support in national polls.

Voters grown cynical after a ceaseless barrage of attack ads deserve to hear the candidates discuss issues face to face in a spontaneous, unscripted format. Presidential debates provided that forum once and could again. The Citizens Debate Commission plans to host five 90-minute debates across the nation this fall at small colleges. If one of the major candidates signs on, the other will face substantial pressure to join him. Sen. Kerry? President Bush?

© 2004 Los Angeles Times

Responding letter to the editor by ReclaimDemocracy.org director, Jeff Milchen published in the LA Times on June 17:

Reinstate Debates That Serve Democracy

Re "Take the Gloves Off," editorial, June 12: The Times rightly condemns the Commission on Presidential Debates for its anti-democratic manipulation of debates and exclusion of serious contenders from outside the Republican and Democratic parties. Your endorsement of the new Citizens' Debate Commission as the best hope of reinstating debates that will serve democracy is well placed.

You erred, however, in calling the CDC bipartisan. The CDC exists to remove bipartisan control of the debates and replace it with nonpartisan events that produce real debate, not the "chewed-over sound bites" you noted. The CDC represents views from all over the political compass and will permit discussion of a wide range of issues excluded under current bipartisan control. All Americans who value vigorous debate and fair participation standards should urge the networks and candidates to reject the glorified infomercials that have come to characterize these "debates" and instead engage in nonpartisan Citizens' Debates.

Jeff Milchen
CDC Board of Directors

 

More on the Debates

*Read the full Citizens' Debate Commission proposal for the 2004 debates

* Download this (pdf format) flier for a concise overview of problems with the CPD and proposed solutions.

* See documentation of the exclusion of vital issues in CPD events, and an overview of the solution.

* Read the op-ed "Duopoly by Design," published in the San Francisco Chronicle in 2000--one of many we wrote and published during the 2000 presidential race.

* Visit the website of the Citizens' Debate Commission

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