OPINION - Guest writer

BRUCE PLOPPER: Debating debates

With more than 20 announced candidates for the Democratic Party's 2020 presidential nomination, candidate debate season will begin earlier than ever and perhaps be the least useful ever.

Yes, that's a fairly harsh conclusion, but given the debate formats television networks have allowed political parties to devise since the first televised presidential debate in 1960, it may be quite accurate.

The televised debates for the coming presidential nominations will begin with the Democratic Party candidates meeting in two groups of 10 on June 26 and June 27. If the past is an indication, the format will allow each candidate to make an opening statement for one or two minutes and then field questions for similarly short time periods, with maybe 30 seconds to respond to comments by other candidates. At the end, each candidate may receive one to two minutes to summarize his or her positions.

Clearly, with 10 candidates per debate, and with debates lasting maybe two hours and 30 minutes each, that allows each candidate 15 minutes of airtime to make opening and closing statements, answer questions, and reply to other candidate assertions, minus the time moderators use to ask questions.

Let's digress for a moment. The most famous set of pre-20th century political debates involved Abraham Lincoln and Illinois U.S. Senator Stephen A. Douglas, in a race for the Senate seat Douglas held. Prior to the 1858 election, they agreed to seven face-to-face debates in cities scattered throughout Illinois. They would have had nine, but each had spoken recently at two of the target cities, so they opted to skip those potential debate sites.

Neither candidate was new to politics, as Lincoln had run many times for office since 1832, winning seven times and losing twice. Douglas had been in politics since 1836, when he won a seat in the Illinois House of Representatives. He won four elections after that. Due to their political histories, each candidate had developed an appreciation for the other's formidable strength.

This appreciation, in turn, led to the debates, which were unlike any debates televised later in the United States. The format for the Lincoln-Douglas debates was that they were to last for three hours, with the first candidate speaking for 60 minutes, the second speaking for 90 minutes, and then the first closing the debate with a 30-minute presentation.

According to debate transcripts, remarks by each candidate included lengthy descriptions of his political positions and past experience, attacks on his opponent, and refutations of comments his opponent had made. These debates seem to have provided useful and thorough information about each candidate's potential and character.

As to misrepresentations, for example, in one debate Douglas attacked Lincoln's stamina, noting that Lincoln was so exhausted at an earlier debate that he had to be carried off stage. In his reply, Lincoln pointed out that what had actually happened was that in celebration, despite his protests, his supporters carried him offstage on their shoulders. The art of misrepresentation has a long history.

Now, back to current reality. Although audiences for more modern debates have had to endure falsehoods and other misrepresentations offered by candidates, that's about the only similarity between the Lincoln-Douglas debates and today's. In one to two minutes, is it really possible for a candidate to provide in-depth information to potential voters? And how much opportunity is there for candidates to provide quality rebuttals to falsehoods and misrepresentations made by other candidates?

Two improvements to the modern-day debate format would be to allow each candidate much more time to explain his or her political positions, and sufficient time for debate moderators or other candidates to refute all falsehoods and misrepresentations made during the course of the debate. Without these format adjustments, debates will not serve voters well.

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Bruce Plopper is a journalism professor emeritus in the UALR School of Mass Communication, who taught Press and Propaganda as a graduate course.

Editorial on 06/13/2019

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