Three-Way Debate Format Flawed

CBS President Emeritus Frank N. Stanton, who organized the country's first televised presidential debate in 1960, yesterday condemned the format of Sunday's three-way debate in St. Louis.

In a brown-bag lunch at the Kennedy School of Government, Stanton said panelists should be allowed to ask follow-ups to prevent candidates from evading tough questions. He also criticized the number of journalists present, saying he favored a single moderator.

During his long career in television, Stanton helped organize the first presidential debate between Sen. John F. Kennedy '40 and Vice President Richard M. Nixon. Stanton, 85, served as an overseer for the College in 1978.

Stanton said Sunday night's presidential debate used essentially the same flawed format as 1960. The only difference was that there were three candidates on the stage Sunday.

"I felt once we got a debate going--and it wasn't even a debate, it was a glorified Face the Nation--we'd grow up and mature," Stanton said. "I was disappointed not in the candidates, but in the lack of follow-up."

A bipartisan national commission on presidential debates recommended a single moderator format earlier this year, but the Bush campaign rejected the arrangement.

Stanton said, the debate's no-follow-up format reminded him of his experience with the Kennedy-Johnson debate.

Stanton said, "I remember Bobby Kennedy sitting in the control room and saying to Sen. Kennedy, 'Don't worry, you just have to give an answer, you don't have to answer the question.'"

The entire format devalues the debate process, said Stanton, who referred repeatedly to Sunday's exchange as the "debate that was not a debate."

During his talk, Stanton recalled his role in pioneering presidential debates.

"Some of us [at CBS] thought it would be a good thing to give the two candidates exposure simultaneously," said Stanton. "Nobody had had both candidates under the same roof before."

After the lunch, one student asked Stanton about the decreasing role of the evening news in comparison to cable news stations such as Cable News Network and C-SPAN.

Stanton acknowledged the decline of network news' popularity, predicting the cancellation of one of the three network evening news programs within five years due to growth of other news sources.

"Some talk shows have gone Hollywood," Stanton said. "There's not much respect for hard-nosed journalism. I think the public is getting what it deserves. If they go for the chaff, they'll have to wait for it to work itself out."

Stanton's speech was one in a series sponsored by the Joan Shorenstein Barone Center on the Press, Politics and Public Policy.