Watching the CNN version of a Presidential debate was educational, but annoying.  The CNN moderators focused on creating attacks and counterattacks. If you talked smack about someone else, the moderators let you keep shouting beyond your time, then they’d allow endless swirls of attack and rebuttal. The candidates who ignored CCN’s provocation and explained capable, rational policies? CNN cut them off hard at the bell. Too calm and sensible for good drama, I suppose. And this was Fight Night!

Anyone have some spare Ritalin? I think CNN might be ADD.

The moderators’ questions were peculiarly structured. They looked at complicated, nuanced positions, but only focused on whatever small part someone else contested. They fashioned that dispute into a lumpy mix of computer commands and catty fighting words. “Your opponent stated that your position on mammogram reimbursement rates was unwieldy nonsense from slutty trailer trash.” Then each moderator mechanically ended with “Please respond” as if the politicians didn’t know what to do next.

Look, bringing up external criticisms can help push a discussion past the surface of an issue.  “Other people say your idea is wrong <here>. Can you explain how you say it really works?”  I didn’t get that vibe from CNN, though.  They just wanted the fight.

Here’s an aside, here’s the kind of stuff I notice. Think about healthcare. The Democratic argument against the corporate healthcare industry is the built-in conflict of interest. Corporations are – by design – amoral constructs dedicated to short-term profits and high stock prices. Corporations aren’t intrinsically motivated by improved health. They’re trying to suck down as much money at the least effort. That’s not wrong. We built them that way.

So, did anyone else notice that CNN is a major-media corporation that depends on minute-by-minute TV ratings for its profitability? And yet we’ve given them the job of running an educational event that’s critical for voter education. In the corporate financial world, nobody rewards CNN for voter education, increasing the public good, or any measure of American understanding. CNN is a corporation that lives or dies by short-term TV ratings, profits, and stock price. That’s why, obliquely, I think the annoying CNN debates make a case for Medicare for All.

Beat that! Ha!

Anyway, the candidates were trying to highlight their differences, so it wasn’t hard to provoke them into louder arguments. And we got useful stuff out of some of that.  Knowing that Kamala Harris, Joe Biden, Elizabeth Warren, Bernie Sanders, and the rest can hold themselves in a fight is good to know. They mostly did well during the conflicts. But heat isn’t the same as light.

Anyone remember back when we gave the Presidential debates to fiercely non-partisan, non-commercial groups? Was there a change notice?  I don’t remember getting the email. Can we go back? I mean, sure, politics can be dull, but CNN Fight Night wasn’t better