Note to Dems: Your Television Debates Stink
Democracy suffers as a dying medium makes one last bid for relevance
Thursday’s installment of the Democratic Party’s multinetwork debate fiasco promises more than just another night of bad television; it’s a lesson in bad democracy.
It’s almost as if media conglomerates and party officials responsible for the debates are strategically preventing candidates from discussing important issues or demonstrating political effectiveness. The whole process has almost nothing to do with the grasp of issues or executive competency. Instead, it has everything to do with the demise of the television medium.
If the debates are attempting to demonstrate anything, it’s the dominance of television in American society — as if mounting a last desperate stand against the tube’s inevitable surrender to the internet. Making matters worse, the Democratic Party seems more than okay with the idea of shaping its candidates and their messaging to fit the needs of television spectacle, out of a misplaced belief that well-produced TV can return the party to a golden age of political normalcy, emotional storytelling, and human connection.
Moderators urged candidates to challenge one another and pushed for conflict under the…
