Citizens Panel Mixed on 'Town Hall' Format, Wanted Brokaw to Do More to Challenge the Spin

John McCain's supporters seemed happy with the ground rules of the second presidential debate in Nashville. Barack Obama's supporters seemed happy with the results. But many were troubled by the debate organizers' claim of true public participation in Tuesday's forum.

These are some of the findings of the third Citizens Media Scorecard rating the 2008 presidential and vice-presidential debates. An online panel of more than 2,800 volunteers was recruited by Free Press to "score" the conduct of moderator Tom Brokaw during the "town hall" styled debate.

Where's the Town in Town Hall?

Brokaw selected some questions from audience members and from more than 6 million e-mail and Internet submissions.

But a large portion of the questions were his own, and at times the audience members seemed more a backdrop to Brokaw than protagonists in the debate.

Republican McCain has long insisted that he prefers the town hall format for political debates. And, according to the panel, his supporters share his preference. Almost half the McCain partisans (48% vs. 24% for Barack Obama supporters) judged the town hall format in Nashville to be superior to the moderated format 11 days prior in Mississippi.

Checking the Spin

"Brokaw's balance of issues received high marks from partisans of both candidates," according to Andrew Tyndall of the Tyndall Report, who designed the Scorecard and analyzed the responses Tuesday night. "And their complaints about bias were in perfect balance too."

In the view of the panel, however, Brokaw's decision not to fact-check the candidates or challenge their spin was a problem: 83% of Obama supporters and 75% of McCain supporters wanted to see more challenging follow-up questions from the moderator.

"Like other moderators before him, Brokaw allowed the senators to avoid answering questions and meander to their own comfort zones," said one volunteer rater.

"[Brokaw] kept saying their answers were too long, but didn't focus enough on what they were saying," said another.

More Town Hall, Less Wax Museum

Writing for Tech President, Micah Sifry called the Town Hall format a "bust" for not more directly involving the public in the initial and follow-up questions. Sifry recommends having a follow-up round of public questions, "so the public and the candidates could dig deeper, and get past the soundbites."

"The pre-agreed rules that prevented the studio audience from asking follow-up questions or even showing emotion, made the 'town hall' style presidential debate more like a wax museum animatronic replica of a town hall," he wrote. "What a shame."

One debate rater said that it's not a town hall meeting "if the 'town hall' is not allowed to participate in the conversation other than by reading prepared questions."

"What makes a town hall meeting useful is the reaction of the audience," another panelist wrote. "This would have given us a chance to see how each candidate reacts immediately to public opinion."

Brokaw's Bias? Depends on Whom You Ask.

Despite the format, Obama's supporters were more likely to say their candidate won in Nashville (92% vs. 76% of supporters who rated the Sept. 26 Mississippi debate) whereas McCain's supporters saw no improvement (84% said he won both).

There were few complaints about Brokaw's bias towards one candidate or the other. Most of the members of each group of supporters found no favoritism (74% of Obama's, 70% of McCain's); a minority saw evidence of it, almost always against their preferred candidate (25% and 26%).

Comments

[GuidedByEwoks]

cspan was showing the 1992 town hall debate last night. Yesterday was a shamble in comparison. Brokaw was an embarrasment. His questions were completely facile. Yes/ No on Russia?! The lack of participation and engagement with the audience was horrible. And why was brokaw calling out everyone's section. Sounded like he was running a cake walk. The sections are for you and you alone, Brokaw. So you don't look like an idiot when you call on the next question. Don't worry the cameramen will find them. The prep on this was bad. In comparison, Leher was okay. Ifill was hurt by bad rules. And brokaw was just bad. Good luck, Seiffert. Almost wish Stephanopoluos and Charlie could reprise their roles as the crazy moderators just for some drama.

The league of Women voters need to retake the debates from the corporate hacks who are currently running American discourse into the ground. All of the primary debates were more informative and entertaining.

[lakat]

Brokaw wasted much time chastising the candidates (mostly Obama) like they were errant children for not keeping to the 1 minute follow-up time limit. Brokaw is a Republican shill and almost as testy as McCain. I didn't like his involvement at all. I especially was put off by his referring to Social Security and Medicare as "entitlements". Screw him and all the rich people who want those programs gutted so they don't have to help their fellow Americans keep their quality of life.

[lovethesinner]

I hate saying this because I've always loved Tom Brokaw, but the only thing I got from last night's debate was a stronger sense of why retirement at 65 should be mandated by law in some professions.

Last night was the first time I got the sense that a poorly moderated debate could do real harm to an election. I'm less fearful about Bob Schieffer, but I'm not sure why. I wouldn't have said this even as last a a few weeks ago, but if it were put up to a vote, I'd prefer Katie Couric to any of the senior staff at CBS.

The question is this: can any person in their seventies really have a good understanding of what the whole country needs? And how can someone that age, who's created such long histories and actual friendships with these politicians (Schieffer is Bush's golfing buddy, and Brokaw has called himself a "friend" of McCain) claim to be completely objective? Unbiased?

That towel snapping by McCain with Brokaw last night belied a familiarity that made made me extremely uncomfortable.

Obama-Biden '08

[littlepuffycloud]

Aside from how presidential Senator Obama looked and performed and how old and lame McCain looked and performed, I thought this format was stupid. Those poor people had to sit there, with their little index cards, nervously waiting and wondering if they would be called upon to ask their question. Brokaw was not necessary and did nothing to further the 'discussion' by either candidate. A total waste of time, other than the great zingers OBama hit McCain with, after McCain walked right into them.

[robeson]

Tom Brokaw, a close friend of McCain, was the moderator and he also selected the questions. This is certainly not a Town Hall debate.

[koulflo]

McCain seemed infirm to me as I listened over the radio.
see
http://koulflo.wordpress.com/2008/10/08/debate-results-mccain-time-warp/

[Gidster]

There was a bit of discourtesy or disdain as you will.
McCain meandered around the venue while Obama was speaking, condescended to an African-American questioner and refuse Obama's handshake.

Brokaw Thanked McCain several times, but did not extend that same courtesy to Obama.

Is this bias or just bad manners and time constraint on Brokaw's part I don't know, but is was evident.
The questions however were spot on about the issues that matter most and not about the McCain smear campaign, but Brokaw should have maintained the domestic policy format and not chosen questions about foreign policy!

[DeejTu]

The treatment of Obama as opposed to McCain was evident. You are right about the courtesy of thanking both. It was one of the first things I noticed at the beginning of the debate. Brokaw also bordered on rude when reminding the participants, especially Obama, about the time...until he finally gave up with a joke. It could simply be an older man to a younger man and the same with McCain, but being that evident was a negative to the debate.

[Dynamohum]

Brokaw is a republican shill. If anyone is a thinking person (mostly dems,progressives,independents) they could plainly see the bias. It just screamed of favoritism. McCain with the exception of once or twice was enabled to have the last word by Brokaw. Thank God Obama is so masterful at this game.

[Russycle]

I just reviewed the transcript on CNN.com.

Brokaw thanks Obama: 2
Brokaw thanks McCain: 7

I think we can ignore the last two thanks that came at the end of the debate when he was wrapping it up, so that's 6 thanks to 1 in favor of McCain.

Gee, Tom, biased much?