Debate Commission snubs Latinos -- again
With the presidential election 57 days away, the campaign season is coming into sharper focus. On Wednesday, the Commission on Presidential Debates announced the moderators for the upcoming debates. Chris Wallace from Fox News will moderate the first Trump-Biden debate on Sept. 29; Steve Scully of C-SPAN will moderate the second on Oct. 15. The third debate will be moderated by Kristen Welker of NBC News on Oct. 22, and Susan Page of USA Today will helm the vice-presidential debate on Oct. 7.
While this is an esteemed group of journalists, the Commission again decided not to have any Latino moderators for the debates. In fact, there has never been a Latino moderator for a U.S. presidential debate. At this point, the Commission has moved past seeming to overlook qualified Latinos journalists; with its latest selections, it's beginning to feel like there's a mindset of exclusion.
The Commission on Presidential Debates is a nonpartisan organization that has overseen all the presidential debates since 1987. The list of past moderators amounts to a Who's Who of influential journalists, with alumni including Tom Brokaw, Bob Schieffer, and Jim Lehrer. Many of them are household names, in part, due to their exposure on the debate stage before a vast audience. The final 2016 debate between Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton, for instance, drew over 71 million viewers.
That's what makes the Commission's action this election cycle so disappointing. Over the years, the Commission has not shied from choosing moderators that reflect our country's diversity. Past moderators in the debates have included an African American man (Lester Holt), an out gay man (Anderson Cooper), an Asian American woman (Elaine Quijano, who moderated the vice-presidential debate in 2016), and notable female journalists as well. It is a glaring omission that there has yet to be a Latino named to such a prestigious role. To put this in perspective, imagine if we had never had an African American or female debate moderator. That would be unthinkable in 2020.
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