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How Time Bought Itself a Debate
By Hank Williams

The CNN logo was prominent in the background of the Gore-Bradley debate at the historic (as network hype called it) Apollo Theater, which is now owned by CNN’s parent company—Time-Warner. CNN’s Bernard Shaw was the moderator; questions were fielded from Time-Warner’s new Internet partner America Online, and from Time’s Time Magazine staff.

The whole episode was a lesson in the power of the new media moguls. If you have the cash, you can even buy yourself exclusive rights to two candidates for an evening.

While Bradley and Gore parried back and forth on the issue of minority access to the media (or the lack of same), neither bothered to take on the issue of the effect of continued consolidation as media corporations get bigger and bigger as the result of mergers.

One of the effects is to narrow the scope of debate and criticism in the media in general. Think a reporter from Time is going to ask Gore about the effects of the Telecommunications bill passed by Clinton that has loosened the rules for media ownership? One of them might, but they didn’t at the debate.

Questions for both candidates were taken from the Internet from AOL and CNN.com. The “panel of journalists” Shaw repeatedly referred to and drew questions from were really only Time Magazine’s Karen Tumulty and Tamala Edwards and CNN Senior Analyst Jeff Greenfield. The few tough questions that were posed to the candidates were not followed up with much vigor.

Amy Goodman, of Pacifica Radio’s Democracy Now and co-host of WBAI Radio’s Wake-Up Call, related the problems she had in trying to tape the show for WBAI—she was informed that arrangements had to be made in advance; entry to the event was not enough to allow a journalist that right. WBAI apparently made the right arrangements, as they were able to broadcast the event live. Goodman’s a pretty sharp journalist, but she wasn’t allowed to ask any questions that night.

The debate even featured scripted commercial breaks, promos at the end for CNN’s election coverage show, and—if you still hadn’t had enough—exclusive post-debate live interviews of Gore and Bradley with none other than Time Magazine managing editor Walter Isaacson and CNN senior analyst Jeff Greenfield.

The net result was more like a made-for-TV event than an opportunity to really see what the candidates were made of. That may not be all bad, as it turns out that there’s little substance to either one and even less difference. If you could stay awake, it was easy to figure that out.