2016 Postmortem

Garrett78

(10,721 posts) Wed Sep 16, 2015, 10:54 PM Sep 2015

Question about primary debates. [View all]

Have primary debates always been moderated by partisans? Everyone has biases, of course, and some will argue that supposed non-partisans sympathize with one political party more than another. But my memory of primary debates is very foggy, and I'm only 37, so I'm wondering if some of you might recall when primary debates started being moderated by obvious partisans. Maybe it's always been that way.

It's bad enough that candidates lie and don't get called out for doing so. Must moderators set the stage for falsehoods with questions based on false premises?

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Question about primary debates. [View all] Garrett78 Sep 2015 OP

In my memory, they were always moderated by people who at least pretended to be impartial. Smarmie Doofus Sep 2015 #1

Primary debates are relatively new... brooklynite Sep 2015 #2

When did primary debates begin? Garrett78 Sep 2015 #3

From what I could find, 1948 Uncle Joe Sep 2015 #6

Anderson cooper is doing the democratic debate yeoman6987 Sep 2015 #4

And that's what I'm hoping to determine. Garrett78 Sep 2015 #5

They were republican moderators so of course yeoman6987 Sep 2015 #7

We agree about the current reality, but that's not my question. Garrett78 Sep 2015 #8