CBS's Bob Schieffer will be the moderator on Wednesday night at 8:00pm when Senators Obama and McCain practice their media-training before millions of people. They'll be seeing how well they can answer the question they wish Shieffer had asked them. Alabama live offers an advance story on the event. It says Sarah Palin boasted about not answering the questions asked in her debate. A partial solution would be to go to a true debate format with a panel of journalists.
The Joe-6 pack questions have their place, but journalists are paid to keep up with the issues and to know when a candidate has just contradicted himself. And as happened in the Gubernatorial Debates produced here in Montgomery by APT, journalists will sometimes work together and ask a follow ups to a question asked by another panelist.
Yes, I know the problem with that is the candidates won't agree to it, but just perhaps they would be forced to accept at least one debate in that format if the Presidential Debate Commission and the broadcasters stood firm. OK, you can stop laughing...asking the same broadcasters who produce drivel like "To Catch A Predator" to insist on real journalism is a bit unrealistic.
The only workable solution may be for voter-viewers to punish candidates who don't answer the questions by making it a factor in deciding who they'll vote for.
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