It has recently come out that the moderator, Gwen Ifill, of the vice-presidential debate is writing a book in support of Obama. With the debate fast approaching, it is arguable whether she is really nonpartisan. As moderator, Ifill’s job is to ask the candidates questions and not use her power to turn the debate in favor of one candidate. Many McCain and Palin supporters disagree that the book will be bad for Sarah Palin at the debate. Many think that with all of the media attention Ifill has been getting for her book, she will be extremely careful to not use her position to help Joe Biden. Even with all of the controversy regarding the moderator, this article urges people to closely watch the candidates and their replies, not just the moderator.
Being a republican myself, I know that my opinion is biased on this article, but I am trying to look at it as a nonpartisan observer. I think that Gwen Ifill should not be allowed to moderate this debate. Whether she disregards the media attention and favors the Obama – Biden team or plays it safe and is cautious not to do anything “biased” toward Sarah Palin, the audience will not receive a nonpartisan debate. As much as Ifill claims that she will be nonpartisan, it is easier said than done. I think that the debate should be moderated by someone who truly is undecided on how to vote this November. This way we would hear about the issues that really matter, not just the ones that make a certain candidate sound good. I doubt that Ifill will moderate in a nonpartisan way, but I hope that she does so that Americans have the facts needed to cast their votes this fall.
Link to Article: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/02/us/politics/02debate.html?ref=politics
Work Cited
Rutenberg, Jim. "Moderator’s Planned Book Becomes a Topic of Debate." New York Times
2 Oct. 2008: 27.
*Blogspot will not allow me to underline New York Times, but it should be underlined.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
3 comments:
I agree that Ifill should not be the moderator of the debate if she supports Obama, and you're definitely right that being nonpartisan is harder than it seems. But at the same time, how do we specifically know if one is completely and truly undecided? Any moderator could just keep a bias they have to themselves, or their opinions could even change during the debate. We cannot just think that if one is a moderator, they don't secretly have any strong opinion.
having just watched the debate, i don't think that she was biased at all! she asked equally tough questions to both of them. i heard about the book she is in the process of writing and the only thing about obama is how well he has run his campaign. I don't think it is really about his views on issues....but i could be wrong. haha.
I believe that she should be allowed to moderate the debate. Not only is there very little that a moderator could do to influence the debate, without being blatantly obvious about it, but Brenden is right about how hard it is to be unbiased. After all, it is better to have an obvious bias, than a hidden one. No one is completely unbiased, and if they are, they probably don't care at all about the election, which would lead to a horrible moderator.
Post a Comment