• This is a political forum that is non-biased/non-partisan and treats every person's position on topics equally. This debate forum is not aligned to any political party. In today's politics, many ideas are split between and even within all the political parties. Often we find ourselves agreeing on one platform but some topics break our mold. We are here to discuss them in a civil political debate. If this is your first visit to our political forums, be sure to check out the RULES. Registering for debate politics is necessary before posting. Register today to participate - it's free!

Comparing The Two CNN Debates

media matters

couldnt be that their view is biased now, could it?
 
pbrauer said:
CNN has held the last two presidential debates, the first among Republicans on September 16, then among Democrats on October 14. While the Democratic debate focused on substance, the Republican debate was filled with he-said she-saids.



http://mediamatters.org/blog/2015/10/14/comparing-the-two-cnn-debates/206150
Click to expand...


Media Matters apparently fails to note that the questions given to Republicans BY THE MODERATORS were "so and so says X, can you comment on what you think about them saying X"?


But at least you have this in the right forum for it.
 
cpwill said:
Media Matters apparently fails to note that the questions given to Republicans BY THE MODERATORS were "so and so says X, can you comment on what you think about them saying X"?


But at least you have this in the right forum for it.
Click to expand...

Did you watch the video, that was their point.
 
pbrauer said:
CNN has held the last two presidential debates, the first among Republicans on September 16, then among Democrats on October 14. While the Democratic debate focused on substance, the Republican debate was filled with he-said she-saids.
http://mediamatters.org/blog/2015/10/14/comparing-the-two-cnn-debates/206150
Click to expand...

You forgot to mention that the "He said-she saids" were all from the moderators trying to start internal fighting.

It was quite noticeable that the CNN Dem Debate moderators didn't do that at all, preferring instead to foster a display of love between the candidates, who responded by patting each other on the back, smiling at each other and shaking hands during the debate.

Nice try, though.
 
Ray410 said:
You forgot to mention that the "He said-she saids" were all from the moderators trying to start internal fighting.

It was quite noticeable that the CNN Dem Debate moderators didn't do that at all, preferring instead to foster a display of love between the candidates, who responded by patting each other on the back, smiling at each other and shaking hands during the debate.

Nice try, though.
Click to expand...

See post #4:mrgreen:
 
I certainly saw a different format with the Democrat debate versus what they did with the Republican debate. They actually gave airtime to the Democrats to answer a question versus pinning them against another like they did with Republicans. But having said that, I thought Anderson Cooper asked some really good questions. And it is getting clearer and clearer that each party as a definite direction they want to lead this country. One wants to restore our first principles as a free republic and the other wants to transform us into a social democracy.
 
cpwill said:
Media Matters apparently fails to note that the questions given to Republicans BY THE MODERATORS were "so and so says X, can you comment on what you think about them saying X"?


But at least you have this in the right forum for it.
Click to expand...

Questions from the Dem debate

COOPER: Secretary Clinton, is Bernie Sanders tough enough on guns?
Click to expand...

COOPER: Senator -- Governor Chafee, you have an F rating from the NRA, what do you think about what Senator Webb just said?
Click to expand...

BASH: Governor Chafee, you were the only Republican in the Senate to vote against the Iraq war. You say Secretary Clinton should be disqualified from the presidency because she voted in favor of using force in Iraq. She has since said that her vote was a mistake. Why isn't that good enough?
Click to expand...

BASH: Secretary Clinton, he's questioning your judgment.
Click to expand...

COOPER: Secretary Clinton voted to authorize military force in Iraq, supported more troops in Afghanistan. As Secretary of State, she wanted to arm Syrian rebels and push for the bombing of Libya. Is she too quick to use military force?
Click to expand...

COOPER: Does she -- does she want to use military force too rapidly?
Click to expand...
COOPER: Governor O'Malley, just for the record, on the campaign trail, you've been saying that Secretary Clinton is always quick for the -- for the military intervention. Senator -- Secretary Clinton, you can respond.
Click to expand...

COOPER: Senator Webb, you said as president you would never have used military force in Libya and that the attack on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi was, in your words, "inevitable." Should Secretary Clinton have seen that attack coming?
Click to expand...

COOPER: Secretary Clinton, on the campaign trail, Governor Webb has said that he would never have used military force in Libya and that the attack on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi was inevitable. Should you have seen that attack coming?
Click to expand...

COOPER: Secretary (sic) Webb, you served in Vietnam. You're a marine. Once a marine, always a marine. You served as a marine in Vietnam. You're a decorated war hero. You eventually became secretary of the navy.

During the Vietnam War, the man standing next to you, Senator Sanders, applied for status as a conscientious objector. Given his history, can he serve as a credible commander-in-chief?
Click to expand...

The transcript includes many more examples of the mods asking the dem candidates to comment on the words and policies of their competitors
 
For comparison, from the 1st GOP debate, hosted by FoxNews

BAIER: Gentlemen, we know how much you love hand-raising questions. So we promise, this is the only one tonight: the only one. Is there anyone on stage, and can I see hands, who is unwilling tonight to pledge your support to the eventual nominee of the Republican party and pledge to not run an independent campaign against that person.

Again, we’re looking for you to raise your hand now — raise your hand now if you won’t make that pledge tonight.

Mr. Trump.

(BOOING)

Mr. Trump to be clear, you’re standing on a Republican primary debate stage.

TRUMP: I fully understand.

BAIER: The place where the RNC will give the nominee the nod.

TRUMP: I fully understand.

BAIER: And that experts say an independent run would almost certainly hand the race over to Democrats and likely another Clinton.

You can’t say tonight that you can make that pledge?

TRUMP: I cannot say. I have to respect the person that, if it’s not me, the person that wins, if I do win, and I’m leading by quite a bit, that’s what I want to do. I can totally make that pledge. If I’m the nominee, I will pledge I will not run as an independent. But — and I am discussing it with everybody, but I’m, you know, talking about a lot of leverage. We want to win, and we will win. But I want to win as the Republican. I want to run as the Republican nominee.

BAIER: So tonight, you can’t say if another one of these…

PAUL: This is what’s wrong!

BAIER: OK.

PAUL: I mean, this is what’s wrong. He buys and sells politicians of all stripes, he’s already…

BAIER: Dr. Paul.

PAUL: Hey, look, look! He’s already hedging his bet on the Clintons, OK? So if he doesn’t run as a Republican, maybe he supports Clinton, or maybe he runs as an independent…

BAIER: OK.

PAUL: …but I’d say that he’s already hedging his bets because he’s used to buying politicians.
Click to expand...

It's obvious that FoxNews deliberately undermined the GOP debate by asking about the pledge that republicans came up with, which forced Rand Paul to accuse Trump of buying politicians.
 
sangha said:
Questions from the Dem debate
The transcript includes many more examples of the mods asking the dem candidates to comment on the words and policies of their competitors
Click to expand...

The issue was that the majority of the questions were spread out and in between different solo question. I mean, the thing is about the Republican debate is that once you move outside that first 45 minutes to an hour where it was all back and forth and over the silliest of things, it got very much focused on substance.
 
The big difference is the number of participants. IMO it's pretty impossible to have a "debate" with 10 people on the stage. Last night was a good "debate". I don't agree with anything they said, but I felt like you could pick out the strong from the weak. With 10 folks involved, there isn't enough time for that.
 
Rentoc said:
The big difference is the number of participants. IMO it's pretty impossible to have a "debate" with 10 people on the stage. Last night was a good "debate". I don't agree with anything they said, but I felt like you could pick out the strong from the weak. With 10 folks involved, there isn't enough time for that.
Click to expand...

Exactly, the GOP debate had over two times the contestants with only 50% more time than the democratic debate, which had only 5 contestants. You're getting a lot less time per contestant than with what we saw in the democratic debate.

Pretty much just rigs the debate from the start, there's no time to talk about anything legitimately substantial.
 
Ray410 said:
See your own comments in the OP.
Click to expand...

At best, his comments left that aspect ambiguous when he said, "GOP Debate...Democratic Debate." No where did he specify that that the blame laid at the feet of the candidates or the moderators.
 
As others have mentioned, you have the size of the candidate pool as one of the factors that distinguished the two debates. With that many candidates, it is nearly impossible (or entertaining) to start with one policy question and just go down the line with all nine or ten candidates. People will forget distinguishing aspects and you will get a lot of candidates hearing the others' responses and adjusting their answers in turn.

The other distinguishing feature is that the Republican debate was the second debate for the Republicans whereas this was the first debate for the Democrats. As such, the first debate will tend to focus more on issues and set the goal of introducing the various candidates to the public. A second debate might tend to pick a theme and use that theme to set the mood and captivate the audience.

And finally, one of the most distinguishing features is the lead candidate for each debate. In the Democratic side, you have Hillary Clinton with years of political service and a vast wealth of policy positions, but not a lot of charisma. On the Republican side, you have Donald Trump with zero years of political service, roughly one or two policy positions, and a butt load of charisma. You're not going to get a very entertaining debate with Trump at the focal point if you focus on the tribal disputes of Libya or Afghanistan. You will get an entertaining debate by asking Trump to elaborate on why he would call out Fiorna's looks.
 
MrT said:
As others have mentioned, you have the size of the candidate pool as one of the factors that distinguished the two debates. With that many candidates, it is nearly impossible (or entertaining) to start with one policy question and just go down the line with all nine or ten candidates. People will forget distinguishing aspects and you will get a lot of candidates hearing the others' responses and adjusting their answers in turn.

The other distinguishing feature is that the Republican debate was the second debate for the Republicans whereas this was the first debate for the Democrats. As such, the first debate will tend to focus more on issues and set the goal of introducing the various candidates to the public. A second debate might tend to pick a theme and use that theme to set the mood and captivate the audience.

And finally, one of the most distinguishing features is the lead candidate for each debate. In the Democratic side, you have Hillary Clinton with years of political service and a vast wealth of policy positions, but not a lot of charisma. On the Republican side, you have Donald Trump with zero years of political service, roughly one or two policy positions, and a butt load of charisma. You're not going to get a very entertaining debate with Trump at the focal point if you focus on the tribal disputes of Libya or Afghanistan. You will get an entertaining debate by asking Trump to elaborate on why he would call out Fiorna's looks.
Click to expand...

It was pretty funny watching the assembly line of last statements at the end of the GOP :lol:
 
pbrauer said:
CNN has held the last two presidential debates, the first among Republicans on September 16, then among Democrats on October 14. While the Democratic debate focused on substance, the Republican debate was filled with he-said she-saids.



http://mediamatters.org/blog/2015/10/14/comparing-the-two-cnn-debates/206150
Click to expand...


Media matters video, which I must give them credit for, accurately show the ridiculous dichotomy of how CNN moderators treated each debate; with Tapper trying to recreate Jerry Springer while Cooper treated it as an actual political debate.

I wish their write up about their video did a better job of getting that point across, as had one just read the summary as opposed to watched the video you'd understandably come away thinking that the difference between the two was driven by the candidates, not the moderators.
 
Zyphlin said:
Media matters video, which I must give them credit for, accurately show the ridiculous dichotomy of how CNN moderators treated each debate; with Tapper trying to recreate Jerry Springer while Cooper treated it as an actual political debate.

I wish their write up about their video did a better job of getting that point across, as had one just read the summary as opposed to watched the video you'd understandably come away thinking that the difference between the two was driven by the candidates, not the moderators.
Click to expand...

I think the biggest problem the Republicans had was Trump. He is just too much of temptation for any media outlet to try to turn the debate into a circus in order to boost ratings. The fact is, as long as the front runners for the GOP nomination are guys like Trump and Carson, you are not going to get a substantive debate.
 
SouthernDemocrat said:
I think the biggest problem the Republicans had was Trump. He is just too much of temptation for any media outlet to try to turn the debate into a circus in order to boost ratings. The fact is, as long as the front runners for the GOP nomination are guys like Trump and Carson, you are not going to get a substantive debate.
Click to expand...

By and large, the first debate was substantive (no debate I've seen on a national primary scene has been 100% substantive, but it's about the majority direction). And Trump was the front runner then. So I disagree with the notion. Unlikely? Sure, it's likely media outlets will fall to the temptation and go for the LCD, but not a definite by any stretch.
 
The GOP debates are much more entertaining. The candidates have more charisma. You know going in the Dem debate was going to be about endless freebies and political correctness.
 
pbrauer said:
CNN has held the last two presidential debates, the first among Republicans on September 16, then among Democrats on October 14. While the Democratic debate focused on substance, the Republican debate was filled with he-said she-saids.
Click to expand...

That's because he-said/she-said was the explicit CNN goal for the Repub debate.
 
pbrauer said:
You have mentioned before last night's debate?
Click to expand...

This concerns the Repub CNN debate, not last night's, and it's not controversial. Jake Tapper was quite clear that he intended to pit the Repubs against each other, and that's what happened. Rationale was that they had already had their first debate to introduce themselves, and their second debate was the time to take each other on. If Dems follow the same pattern then their moderator will set them against each other in their second debate.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom