Debate Format Biased: Favors Journalists

Should Gwen Ifill be disqualified from moderating the VP debate because of her book on Obama? Absolutely. There is no reason to expect her to be neutral, and the expectation of neutrality is precisely the reason for having the debates moderated by supposedly professional mainstream journalists.

But who said that journalists are neutral anyway? If that fiction was ever believable, if journalists made a serious effort to maintain trust in their professionalism and neutrality, those days are far behind us. I don't know whether Gwen Ifill is more biased than anybody else; I just know that there's reason to doubt it, and in that case the debate becomes merely a press conference and not a "bipartisan forum" for the benefit of the voters.

One of the problems with the present system is that it pays Gwen Ifill and others in her line of work a compliment they don't deserve. The bipartisan national debate commission should quit dignifying the sordid profession of journalism. Let the candidates speak on whatever issues they wish, with agreed upon time-limits, and some provision for responding to each other's points--as in the Lincoln-Douglas debates. Minimal moderation is called for. Let the candidates suggest moderaters from any profession, provided that they agree they can manage the clock fairly--the director of the Metropolitan Museum of Art would be fine if the candidates agreed. But why put journalists between the candidates and the voters? So many of the questions they ask are stupid. "Where do each of you stand on the bailout package?" The bailout package then still being negotiated. How can anybody have a sensible discussion around an unanswerable question like that?

If journalists have to be involved, it would make more sense to have the candidates ask the questions and let the journalists answer, as if they were giving a briefing to the president. After all they lay claim to our attention by implying that they know all about sophisticated matters like the Bush Doctrine, etc. etc. Then if a candidate caught a journalist in a serious gaffe, he could act presidential and fire the at-fault adviser on the spot. There's a press conference for the post-liberal era.