The Internecine Politics Undermining the Civility of Political Discourse?

Brexit has spawned a form of internecine politics in the UK that is a lose-lose for all - the politicians, parties, and the nations, and very likely, the public interest. Conservatives have referred to 'blue on blue' attacks on one's own party members, but not as in military parlance, accidental. These are really intentional efforts … Continue reading The Internecine Politics Undermining the Civility of Political Discourse?

A Plea to Moderators of the US Presidential Debates

A Plea to Moderators of the US Presidential Debates and their Media Organizations Lessons can be learned from this year’s primary debates and applied to enhance the value of the forthcoming US Presidential Debates, beginning on September 26th, 2016. The major lessons include the following: Moderators should aim to generate a debate between the candidates, … Continue reading A Plea to Moderators of the US Presidential Debates

Opportunities for CNN and Candidates in the First Democratic Party Debate

Five candidates are preparing for the CNN debate to be held in Las Vegas on 13 October 2015: Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders, but also Martin O'Malley, Jim Webb and Lincoln Chafee. There are two likely outcomes. The first is an opportunity to actually debate the issues. The previous Fox and CNN debates failed to engage … Continue reading Opportunities for CNN and Candidates in the First Democratic Party Debate

#CNNDebate Needs to Focus Candidates on the Issues, Not Each Other

Bad news heading into the #CNNDebate. CNN is strategising on ways to get the candidates 'interacting' with each other - which is what a debate should indeed entail (unlike the first Fox News-Facebook disaster). However, trying to generate arguments among the candidates, which seems to be the strategy, is different from getting the candidates to … Continue reading #CNNDebate Needs to Focus Candidates on the Issues, Not Each Other

An Open Appeal to #CNNDebate Moderators – Focus on the Issues

I have been critical of the first GOP debate organized by Fox News and Facebook, despite its record-breaking audience. I’ve also written a number of posts about how the broadcast failed to focus on the issues. Given the excitement building around the CNN Debate on 16 September, let me make a simple appeal to the … Continue reading An Open Appeal to #CNNDebate Moderators – Focus on the Issues

Stop the Televised Debates and Shift to the Internet

The Republican debates are about to occur on television in ways that will provide an unfair advantage to the chosen ten, and undermine the campaign of at least six other candidates. Exposure of lesser known candidates on televised debates can make a significant difference.* Since there are viable alternatives to television determining the fate of … Continue reading Stop the Televised Debates and Shift to the Internet