Networks Have No Business Hosting Debates

Yesterday, I argued that Fox News has good reasons for excluding long-shot candidates like Ron Paul from presidential debates -- at least if the alternative is allowing them on stage but denying them time to speak.

But that's an imperfect solution. Here's a perfect one: TV networks should stop hosting debates.

What is a debate, after all? It's a news event, or it's supposed to be, anyway. And journalistic enterprises aren't supposed to host events -- they're supposed to cover them. Would CBS News or CNN "host" the Inauguration, or a Senate hearing, or a State of the Union address? Those are all, in one way or another, staged events, but the networks handle them, properly, as news.

There's a good business rationale for doing it the other way, of course. If all the networks were to cover each debate, the ratings for each network's broadcast would be low. By taking turns, each network ensures strong ratings for the debates it does host and is able to draw better ratings by counter-programming when it's somebody else's turn.

But at what cost? Just look at what it's meant for CNN. Democratic candidates have refused to debate on Fox, which they see as hostile ground. By agreeing to debate on CNN, therefore, they are essentially bestowing their seal of approval on it -- undermining CNN's independence and lending credibility to the charge that it favors Democrats.

And, claims of party-line bias aside, who wants to be the network that politicians trust to make them look good, anyway?

Networks, do yourselves a favor: Let the political parties organize their own primary debates. Let them decide who gets to participate, or what the criteria ought to be for inclusion. (In this case that would mean letting Paul and Duncan Hunter in on the action, since that's what the New Hampshire Republicans favor.) Let them attempt the thankless task of balancing breadth of choice against depth of discussion. And after all that, if they still want Wolf or Brit or Brian or Katie to moderate, by all means, lend them out, but under the understanding they do it as guests, not hosts.