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Jun. 6, 2007 On June 5, CNN hosted the third Republican debate in New Hampshire, featuring the ten GOP candidates vying for a shot at the 2008 presidential election. The debates lasted two hours, which should have given all of the candidates apple time to have their voice heard. Wolf Blitzer made sure that the candidates answered the questions asked of them and refused to allow interruptions from candidates that weren’t being questioned. On the surface it seemed to run in a much more professional manner than the prior debates. But no one had dive deep to realize the agenda that CNN was pushing. Wolf Blitzer and the CNN moderators brought up several issues that to this point had been merely glazed over, if not mentioned at all. One issue that had not even been brought up at the last debate was global warming and its effect on the environment. It would’ve been nice to hear all of the candidate’s opinions on the matter. But CNN had other plans. From the beginning it was clear that CNN was going to feature Mitt Romney, Rudy Giuliani, and John McCain, the three front runners in the presidential hopefuls. They were seated next to each other, prominently displayed in the center of the stage, while underdogs such as Tom Tancredo and Ron Paul were nearly pushed off the edge of the stage. It didn’t take a timer to tell that CNN was spending most of the time on the three Republican front runners and leaving the rest of the candidates without a voice. Luckily, those statistics are available and the idea that the debate was run fairly is merely a joke. Chris Dodd had complained previously that CNN was unfairly focusing on the popular candidates and refusing to let the lesser known candidates be heard. To prove his point he put a talk clock on his website, giving the total amount of time each candidate spent answering questions. It’s no surprise that McCain, Guiliani, and Romney were given the most face time, with most of the other seven candidates getting less than half the speaking time of the three front runners. The candidate with the most talk time, McCain, was given 12 minutes and 44 seconds to speak, compared to Tommy Thompson with the least, who was given only 4 minutes and 21 seconds to speak. Even when the other seven candidates were allowed to answer questions, they were mostly questions about non-issues. Should creationism be taught in schools? Should gays be allowed to openly serve in the military? If CNN hasn’t realized, there are civilians and American soldiers dying in Iraq everyday and there might be some issues of a little higher importance than if those soldiers can be openly gay. While Wolf Blitzer assured everyone that all of the candidates would have a chance to discuss immigration reform and the war on terror, most of the candidates were never given that opportunity. This raises the issue of fairness in the debates. Some would argue that since McCain, Guiliani, and Romney are the only candidates with high support in the early polls for the Republican primary that they deserve more face time than the other candidates. The other seven candidates hardly even register on most polls. But if this were true why would candidates like Jim Gilmore and Tommy Thompson even be allowed to speak. They both consistently register 0% in the polls. It’s because every candidate deserves to have their voice heard. Even according to CNN’s own analysts, none of the polls prior to the Iowa Caucus mean anything, so it is completely unfair to base face time on their support. Ron Paul was by far the winner in both the MSNBC and the CNN debate polls, and placed second in the FoxNews debate polls. But most people wouldn’t know that based on the mere 5 minutes and 51 seconds he was given to speak, the second least of all the candidates. Democracy has already been damaged by instituting a two party system and now that CNN has taken it upon themselves to decide which candidates within the party deserve to speak, they are taking away free choice. Ronald Reagan was a long shot to win the Republican primary prior to the New Hampshire debates and the famous microphone incident. He would later go on to win 49 of the 50 states in his second election. The point of the debates is to allow all of the candidates to speak their mind. Not just the popular ones. CNN is hosting another debate later this summer. Hopefully they won’t make the same mistakes and decide which candidates deserve to be president. Let’s leave that to the American people. ------------ About the author: Andrew J. Mangin is a new contributor of Useless-Knowledge. Email: amangin@smcvt.edu Comment on this article here! ------------ All articles are EXCLUSIVE to Useless-Knowledge.com. Please link to this article rather than copying and pasting it onto your site (which would be unauthorized and illegal). |
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