If any network should have been boycotted (by both parties) from hosting Presidential primary debates, it should have been CNN. And Wolf “I’m inebriated by my own verbosity” Blitzer should have a lifetime ban from ever being the moderator of — well — anything.
Take a look at the Talk Time Graph for the Democratic debates (courtesy of Chriss Dodd):
An obvious bias towards the Big 3 candidates — with Blitzer getting more talk time than 5 of the actual candidates. They might as well have just had Wolf, Hillary, and Barack on the stage.
And here’s the Talk Clock for the GOP candidates:
Again, an obvious bias towards the Big 3 (Giuliani, McCain, and Romney), while Blitzer spoke for nearly twice as long as any body else.
Paul, Gilmore, and Trancredo combined only got to speak for about a minute longer than Wolf took for himself.
There was a rumor that Thompson was in the debate too. But once Wolf realized that it was Tommy instead of Fred, that was the last the former Governor of Wisconsin was heard from.
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OTHERS:
Daniel Larison at Eunomia explains why Tom Tancredo’s message is getting lost, and notes:
He also has to struggle to get any speaking time, and as the now-famous “talk clock†shows he is losing the battle to get out his message. Only the unfortunate Tommy Thompson fared worse in terms of the amount of time he had to speak. How is it possible that any candidate only gets to speak for five and three quarters minutes during a two-hour debate? That’s absurd.
Yes it is.
