CNN's Crowley to moderate Oct. presidential debate

[Valin]

AP:

JOSH LEDERMAN

8/13/12

 

WASHINGTON (AP) - For the first time in two decades, a woman has been tapped to moderate a presidential debate.

 

CNN's Candy Crowley will moderate one of three October debates between President Barack Obama and Republican challenger Mitt Romney, the Commission on Presidential Debates announced Monday. Jim Lehrer of PBS and Bob Schieffer of CBS News will moderate the other two debates.

 

Lehrer will question the candidates during the first debate on Oct. 3 at the University of Denver, focused on domestic topics.

 

Crowley's Oct. 16 debate at Hofstra University in Hempstead, N.Y., will use a town hall format, allowing undecided voters selected by the Gallup Organization to directly question the candidates. Foreign and domestic policy questions will both be fair game.

 

Another female journalist, Martha Raddatz of ABC News, will moderate an Oct. 11 debate at Centre College in Danville, Ky., between Vice President Joe Biden and Republican Rep. Paul Ryan of Wisconsin.

 

The debate season will draw to a close on Oct. 22 with a foreign policy-focused debate moderated by Schieffer at Lynn University in Boca Raton, Fla., a crucial swing state.

 

All the debates are scheduled for 9 p.m. EST. The commission said it will also launch an Internet-based initiative to educate voters before the debates about the issues that are likely to come up.

 

 

(Snip)

 

[Valin]

PJ Media: Remove the Media from the Debates

Roger L Simon

August 13, 2012

 

IU was appalled, although not surprised, to read the just announced list of moderators for the forthcoming presidential debates: Jim Lehrer of PBS, Candy Crowley of CNN, Bob Schieffer of CBS, and Martha Raddatz of ABC (VP debate).

 

All liberals from liberal news organizations. Not even a token representative from Fox or the Wall Street Journal – not in the moderator seat anyway.

 

(Snip)

 

*I thought back to the primary campaign when Newt Gingrich proposed Lincoln-Douglas style debates sans moderators. It was a good idea then and a good idea now.

 

Of the four candidates currently, the one who would triumph in a Lincoln-Douglas format is Paul Ryan, who is by far the most articulate of the four, more articulate, I think, even than the loquacious Gingrich. But whatever the case, the chances of this more even-handed approach being adopted are virtually nil.

 

Despite their liberal backgrounds, the moderators will doubtless put on hats of impartiality. But they are only hats. You don’t have to be Marshall McLuhan to know that on television messages are conveyed in other ways than words. Merely by being there as moderators, these biased liberals become the arbiters of truth. A symbolic judgement is passed. The gatekeepers have the “true” opinions. They “protect” us from “extremist” thought.

 

(Snip)

 

 

* You mean a Real Debate....instead of the joint press conferences that we have now? No No Can't Have Anything Like That!

 

[Saltbag]

This is just absurd, and I'm disappointed that Romney/Ryan aren't pushing back. At least not yet.