Petrelis Files

August 14, 2004

Arthur Bovino
Assistant to the Public Editor
The New York Times

Dear Mr. Bovino:

Several mistakes are made in the New York Times' story today about the nonprofit Commission on Presidential Debates, along with crucial omissions, that I believe should be addressed by national editors.

1. The New York Times article failed to inform readers that the commission is a tax-exempt organization, not just a bipartisan commission. (Source: http://www.guidestar.org/)

2. The paper reports the commission announced the debate schedule last month. Not true. The commission issued a news release about the schedule on November 6, 2003. (Source: http://www.debates.org/pages/news_031106.html)

3. Three column inches are devoted to the opinions of NBC News, a quote from the network, ego-stroking by your reporter of Tom Brokaw, and a response from Janet H. Brown of the commission. How are American democracy and journalism, served by this sort of focus on a retiring anchorman? Why were no voters of any political stripe asked how they viewed the choice of moderators?

4. The story identifies Ms. Brown as a "spokeswoman" for the commission. Basically true, but she is also the executive director of the nonprofit, tax-exempt commission. (Source: http://www.debates.org/pages/lead.html)

5. While the article and headline highlight the lack of a commitment from Bush and Cheney to participate in the debates, no mention is made of the fact that the commission's honorary cochairmen include former presidents Gerald Ford, Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton, but not George Herbert Walker Bush. (Source: http://www.debates.org/pages/lead.html)

6. The story notes a federal judge ruled this week on an FEC-related complaint against the commisison, but omits any reference to the separate federal complaint lodged against the commission. The Open Debates advocacy group of Washington, has lodged a grievance with the Internal Revenue Service accusing the commission "of illegally accepting corporate contributions in order to facilitate presidential campaigns." (Source: http://209.157.64.200/focus/f-news/1155930/posts)

7. And finally, the Times was journalistically delinquent in failing to report the commission has thus far not released the list of this year's corporate sponsors of the debates. (http://www.debates.org/pages/natspons.html)

I ask that my concerns, as a reader, shareholder, and American voter, be passed along to the proper national editors at the New York Times.

Much appreciated.

Regards,
Michael Petrelis
San Francisco, CA
^^^


The New York Times
Aug. 14, 2004

Panel Names Debate Moderators as It Awaits Bush and Cheney's Pledge to Take Part
by Jim Ruttenberg

The commission in charge of setting up the presidential debates names the list of moderators for the four events it plans to hold this fall. Now all it needs is for President Bush to agree to show up.

The bipartisan Commission for Presidential Debates said that Jim Lehrer of PBS, Bob Schieffer of CBS and Charles Gibson of ABC would each moderate one of the three presidential debates scheduled for late September and early October. Gwen Ifill of PBS is to moderate the vice-presidential debate.

Senator John Kerry of Massachusetts, the Democratic nominee, has agreed to appear at the three debates, and his running mate, Senator John Edwards of North Carolina, has agreed to appear at the vice-presidential debate. Mr. Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney have not yet agreed.

Democrats noted that Mr. Bush told Larry King on CNN on Thursday night that "there will be debates, you don't have to worry about that."

On Friday, Mr. Bush's campaign manager, Ken Mehlman, said Mr. Bush was too focused on the Republican convention to make decisions concerning the debates, but Mr. Mehlman added, "I'm confident there will be a good series."

A senior aide to Mr. Bush said on Friday that the campaign saw no reason to lock itself into debate particulars at this point.

The debate commission has taken pains this year to give its plans an aura of inevitability, announcing that the schedule and formats are not negotiable and releasing its list of moderators early.

Last month, the commission announced the schedule of debates: the first, on Sept. 30, in Coral Gables, Fla.; the second, for the vice-presidential candidates, on Oct. 5 in Cleveland; the third, on Oct. 8, in St. Louis; and the last, on Oct. 13, in Tempe, Ariz.

Each debate will run 90 minutes; at three, including the vice-presidential one, the candidates will be seated at a table with the moderator. In St. Louis, the candidates will take questions from the audience.

The commission's announcement was a blow to NBC, the ratings leader of the three major television networks, which was the only one of them not to have an employee serve as moderator. The network had hoped that Tom Brokaw would moderate one last debate before he retired as anchor of its nightly news program after the election.

NBC News said, "We were surprised and deeply disappointed that no one from the No. 1 network news division was chosen. We have no shortage of strong potential moderators, led by Tom Brokaw."

Janet H. Brown, a spokeswoman for the commission, said it had avoided using anchors as moderators since 1988 for fear that they would overshadow the events. "It's important for the moderators to focus attention on the candidates," Ms. Brown said. On Thursday, a federal judge ruled that the Federal Election Commission should not have dismissed a complaint brought against the debate panel in 2000.

That complaint contended that the debate commission acted in a partisan matter in 2000 when it barred third-party candidates, including Ralph Nader, the Green Party candidate, and Patrick J. Buchanan, the Reform Party candidate, from the debate audience. The judge, Henry H. Kennedy Jr., said Thursday that the election commission should investigate the matter.

The debate commission said at the time that it had barred the two candidates because it feared that they would be a disruptive presence.

Mr. Nader nor Mr. Buchanan were included in the debates because each failed to meet a requirement that participants receive support from 15 percent of voters surveyed by five national polling organizations.

The same stipulation exists this year, so Mr. Nader is unlikely to participate in the debates. The commission had no comment on whether he would be allowed in the audience.