Very interesting. List of questions at bottom provide a counterbalance to the main thesis that the debates neglect the important topics of the day. I wish the author had gone the extra step of discussing the reasons why network TV eviscerates debate.

The story covers the important question of the quality of the presidential debates. The slant toward trivial and entertaining questions, and those questions framed by the reich wing tend to take dominance over important questions of policy and democracy. The corporate press only reviews who raised the most money and who bit who in the debate scraps, as opposed to questioning the questions.

The first half of the article is well written and balanced. The questions allowed to be asked in these debates are not very high quality. The second half is weaker, as it assumes that more attention needs to be given to the issues that the author is promoting. The list of questions cited at the end is not trivial, and perhaps these questions, covering most of the important constitutional issues, are sufficient. The author thus gets mixed grades.