Good riddance to the presidential debate commission

The participation of Donald Trump, who gained his greatest fame as host of a reality tv show, pushed recent presidential debates even further into the realm of entertainment extravaganza.

But long before he came onto the scene, the Annenberg Working Group on Presidential Campaign Debate Reform had concluded in a 2015 report that features of modern presidential debates "contribute to a spectacle that distracts from the main purpose of the event: the discussion of the major issues among the candidates present."

Now that President Joe Biden has decided to bypass the Presidential Debate Commission and agreed to debates organized directly by media outlets themselves, there’s a real chance for eliminating the carnival atmosphere that increasingly has characterized debates in recent years.

The two debates the candidates already have agreed upon, hosted by CNN in June and by ABC in September, will be held in-studio with no audience members present — eliminating two major problems with previous commission-sponsored debates. Due to expanded early voting, many Americans already had cast their ballots before the first debate in 2020. And, as the Annenberg Working Group noted, "audience reaction can and has affected the impression of those viewing at home. Laughter, cheers, or jeers also magnify moments and distract from the substance of the statements made by the candidates."

A wide series of open debates, earlier in the year, will allow a better system of democracy, and is better adapted to the nation’s new system of early voting and widespread social media.

Ending ‘chaotic performances,’ curbing online trolls

Much of the criticism surrounding the decision to bypass the commission is centered on the size of the live audience for each debate — a meaningless metric given that the debates will receive extensive coverage on traditional media outlets and, more importantly, shares on social media where an ever-increasing proportion of the electorate gets its news. Furthermore, what benefit is an enormous audience if all they witness is chaotic performances tailored to elicit reaction from the in-person audiences?

As Politico’s West Wing Playbook noted, Trump’s 2023 town hall on CNN, where his supporters packed the room, felt "more akin to a pro wrestling match.”

The debates, as opportunities to speak directly to the American people and held to account by honest moderators, also are a defense against rampant disinformation. Russian trolls, who disrupted the 2016 and 2020 elections, are back, armed with new technology and new techniques. Falsely represented as the work of legitimate journalists, videos manipulated by artificial intelligence, AI, are the new medium of choice for these saboteurs. The debates will offer a chance for candidates and moderators to denounce and correct false claims.

Meanwhile, the Presidential Debate Commission may be on its "last gasp," Rice University historian Doug Brinkley told The Hill. "This is supposed to be their job, and if they are unable to procure a result it means they’re moving themselves into the extinction field."

Marc H. Morial is president and CEO of the National Urban League and was mayor of New Orleans from 1994 to 2002. He writes a twice-monthly column for the Sun-Times.

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