Why Debate Moderators Matter
Why Debate Moderators Matter - NationalJournal.com
The platonic ideal of a presidential-debate moderator is like the psychoanalyst who uses silence as a therapeutic tool. He or she sits out of sight of the patient, opens the session with a general question, and doesn’t say much beyond “Tell me more about that” and “Time’s up.” The technique is meant to elicit intelligent self-scrutiny. The political version of this platonic shrink is a studiously neutral, almost invisible moderator who lets the candidates have at each other.
In the real world, that model doesn’t always cut it. A good debate is one that sheds light—not just on candidates’ personalities and temperaments, as the first presidential smackdown did this month but also on their records and plans for the nation. A moderator needs to seize what opportunities become available with an eye toward the ultimate goal of illumination. This is an active vision that requires flexibility, sharp-elbowed questions, and dogged follow-ups. A debate cannot be considered a success if voters are hit with an avalanche of unchallenged claims, counterclaims, numbers, and misrepresentations.
Some debate experts and partisans have nothing but praise for Jim Lehrer’s restraint in the first presidential debate. A moderator should set the table for discussion, they say, not confront participants or get in the way if they are engaging each other. Nor should the presider be required to clear things up. “A moderator is not there to fact-check in real time. That’s not the job,” says Frank Sesno, a former CNN Washington bureau chief who heads the School of Media and Public Affairs at George Washington University.