Secret Control of the Presidential Debates!

The facts according to Project Censored 2010.......

1. During the 2008 Presidential Debates Barack Obama and John McCain negotiated a secret contract stating the terms of the 2008 debates.

2. Since 1987 a private corporation called the Commission of Presidential Debates (CPD) has sponsored the Presidential debates and created debate contracts that determined who participated, what questions were asked and who asked the questions.

3. Frank Fahrenkopf and Paul Kirk are the cochairs of the CPD. They are lobbyists for multination corporations. The debates are funded by corporations and used to market products.

4. Fahrenkopf and Kirk's "lobbying practices demonstrate their willingness to protect corporate interests at the expense of voter's interests" (Censored, 90).

3. The corporations donate money to the democratic and republican campaigns but do not fund the independent third party candidates.

4. This makes it nearly impossible for the third party candidates to voice their opinions and participate in the debates, even though historically the third party candidates introduce "groundbreaking ideas."

5. The CPD's formating of the debates prohibits "in-depth examination of critical issues and allows the candidates to recite a series of memorized sound bites"(Censored, 91).

Watch this video about the debates!

No Debate: How the Republican and Democratic Parties Secretly Control the Presidential Debates

Let's see if this is truly censored............

If you were to type "2008 presidential debate" into the LexisNexis search 999 results come up. Most of the results mention that "Obama and McCain made agreements for the debates." Other results listed the issues that were going to be addressed, what days they would be on, and how the debates would follow a "format." The "format" being the "censored contract" that American citizens don't know about.

If you were to type the same thing "secret control over the presidential debate" into the google search bar information comes up organically resulting the issues.

“For the 2008 debates, the Commission negotiated a 31-page memo of understanding that lays out in precise detail the rules of stagecraft, questioning, follow-up, audience deportment, and other conditions. The contents of this memo, however, have not been disclosed despite requests by citizen groups.”

Found on:

http://www.alternet.org/politics/102829/the_presidential_debates_are_a_scam/

“The memorandum of understanding is a vital part of the 2008 election and the democratic process. However, both campaigns have refused to divulge the memorandum’s contents. Such a stance is antithetical to the fundamental American notion of transparency in government. For the good of the country, the rules of the presidential debate should be released immediately.”

Found on:

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/10/13/ED1T13G6CH.DTL

When I narrowed my search to "control over presidential debates" a lot of information about the CDP came up. The results were mostly about what the organization was, when it was started and other general information. Most of the sites mentioned criticisms about the CDP on the page as well.

"The commission describes itself as nonpartisan, but it is actually bipartisan: its co-chairmen are Frank Fahrenkopf and Paul Kirk, former chairmen of the Republican and Democratic parties, respectively. Questions concerning third-party participation and debate formats are ultimately resolved behind closed doors among Republican and Democratic negotiators. The commission, posing as an independent sponsor, then enforces these rules, shielding the major-party candidates from public criticism."

Found on:

http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Commission_on_Presidential_Debates

"The stiflingly narrow range of discussion is a direct result of the "debates" being controlled by the CPD--a private institution owned and operated exclusively by prominent Democratic and Republican party operatives. The major party candidates are granted near-total control over format, moderators, and who is invited to participate."

Found on:

http://www.reclaimdemocracy.org/political_reform/debates_exclusion_issues.html

When I narrowed my search even more to "2008 presidential debates" the information that came up focused on the debate schedules and the topics of discussion. Whenever the CPD was mentioned the text said the debates were "sponsored" by them. NOT controlled and manipulated by them.

This censored story isn't entirely censored. There is a lot of information regarding the CPD and their control over the debates on the Internet. However, there isn't anything that provides citizens with the exact content of the debate contract. Therefore the contract is truly censored. I also feel the average citizen would skim over the CPD criticisms that happened to come up organically on a search engine, if they were merely searching for the 2008 debates. One would have to be specifically looking for "secret control over debates" in-order to find the juicy information they wanted.

To quote Water Cronkite, "The CPD- sponsored presidential debates an 'unconscionable fraud'"

Another video to further your knowledge/ curiosity!