News
News
The Commission's own press releases from 2004, followed by the press and broadcast coverage its proposal attracted between November 2003 and October 2004.
Press releases, 2004
The Commission issued six press releases through Open Debates in Washington, DC. Each is summarized below from the archived text.
| Date | Release | Summary |
|---|---|---|
| 12 January 2004 | Citizens' Debate Commission Formed | Civic leaders from the left, right and center announce the Commission. It will operate with full transparency and sponsor debates that address pressing national issues, feature innovative formats and include the candidates the public wants to see. The seventeen founding members are named. |
| 12 February 2004 | Majority of Democratic Candidates Support a Nonpartisan Citizens' Debate Commission | Issued on Lincoln's birthday. Senator John Edwards, Representative Dennis Kucinich and the Rev. Al Sharpton, all then seeking the Democratic nomination, state support for reforming the debates through a nonpartisan commission. |
| 8 March 2004 | Broad Civic Support for Citizens' Debate Commission | More than fifty civic organizations, from environmental groups to judicial-reform advocates, endorse the Commission as sponsor of the 2004 general election debates. Bay Buchanan of The American Cause and Medea Benjamin of Global Exchange are quoted. |
| 24 May 2004 | Citizens' Debate Commission Announces Debate Sites | Six colleges and universities are named for five presidential debates and one vice-presidential debate between 22 September and 15 October. Former presidential candidates John B. Anderson, Pat Buchanan and Eugene McCarthy, and 1996 debate producer Robert Asman, call on the current candidates to take part. |
| 16 August 2004 | Following Court Ruling, Civic Leaders and Elected Officials Call on Candidates to Participate | After the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia found on 12 August that the FEC had acted contrary to law in dismissing a complaint that the Commission on Presidential Debates was partisan, the Commission sends formal invitations to the Bush-Cheney and Kerry-Edwards campaigns, signed by dozens of civic leaders including Representative Ron Paul and Phil Donahue. |
| 23 August 2004 | Pro-Democracy Groups Issue Report Critical of Commission on Presidential Debates | Eleven groups, among them the Brennan Center, Common Cause, Judicial Watch, Rock the Vote and Public Campaign, release the report Deterring Democracy, which concludes that the major party nominees should participate in debates proposed by the Citizens' Debate Commission. |
Coverage during the 2004 debates
The original news page linked to editorials, columns and reports that discussed the Commission or the debate format. Headlines, outlets and dates are listed as they appeared; the articles themselves belong to their publishers and are not reproduced.
| Date | Headline | Outlet |
|---|---|---|
| 16 October 2004 | Format Wrecks Gammage "Debate" | Arizona Republic |
| 14 October 2004 | Eliminating The Debate From The Debates | CommonDreams.org |
| 13 October 2004 | Anheuser World Selects Lager | Riverfront Times |
| 10 October 2004 | Debates Can Be Better And The Basis For Real Improvements | San Antonio Express-News |
| 8 October 2004 | Resolved: That Was No Debate | Los Angeles Times |
| 3 October 2004 | The Art of Debate | San Antonio Express-News |
| 3 October 2004 | Debates Hobbled By Flawed Format | The Herald-Sun |
| 3 October 2004 | Republicrat vs. Democan | BusinessWeek |
| 1 October 2004 | Debatable Debates | 20/20 |
| 1 October 2004 | Breaking The Rules | American Prospect Online |
| 30 September 2004 | Open Up The Debates | The Washington Post |
| 30 September 2004 | Candidates' Appearance Tonight Far From "Debate" | St. Paul Pioneer Press |
| 30 September 2004 | A Slip Of The Lip Could Make This Thing Interesting | Chicago Sun-Times |
| 30 September 2004 | Candidates Firmly in Control of Debate Details | The Macon Telegraph |
| 30 September 2004 | Candidates Will Follow The Script -- Their Own | The Providence Journal |
| 30 September 2004 | Is It Time To Return To The Rough And Tumble Debates Of Old? | San Antonio Express-News |
| 30 September 2004 | Replace Bi-Partisan Shows With Real Debates | Pacific News Service |
| 29 September 2004 | Critics Assail Rule Book For Presidential Debates | Knoxville News Sentinel |
| 29 September 2004 | Format's Debatable; Whether To Watch Isn't | Albuquerque Journal |
| 29 September 2004 | Let's Make Debates A Better 'Interview' For World's Top Job | The Sheboygan Press |
| 28 September 2004 | The Over-Formatted "Debate Show" May Not Shed Light On The Candidates | San Francisco Chronicle |
| 27 September 2004 | Debating The Debates | CBS News |
| 27 September 2004 | Debates Entertaining, But Will They Inform? | The Denver Post |
| 26 September 2004 | Debates Are No Face-Off | Detroit Free Press |
| 26 September 2004 | It'll Be Civilized Warfare | New York Post |
| 22 September 2004 | The Debatable Debates | The Christian Science Monitor |
| 20 September 2004 | Upgrade A Poor Format | The Philadelphia Inquirer |
| 18 September 2004 | The Debate Debacle | The Boston Globe |
| Date | Headline | Outlet |
|---|---|---|
| 30 August 2004 | No Debate: Format's a Sham | Fort Lauderdale Sun-Sentinel |
| 26 August 2004 | Include Third-Party Candidates in Debates | Capital Times |
| 23 August 2004 | Several Groups Say Commission on Presidential Debates is Partisan and Undermines Democracy | Associated Press |
| 20 August 2004 | Subject to Debate | Mother Jones |
| 19 August 2004 | Nader Could Be Barred From Debates He Champions | Hartford Courant |
| 13 August 2004 | Judge Says FEC Should Look Into 2000 Barrings | ABC News |
| 10 August 2004 | Save 'Genuine' Presidential Debates | Christian Science Monitor |
| 9 August 2004 | Times Demand Substantive Debates | The San Diego Union-Tribune |
| 8 August 2004 | Make Debates Meaningful | Denver Post |
| 5 July 2004 | Efforts Building to Take Back the Presidential Debates | Chicago Sun-Times |
| 25 June 2004 | Return to Old-Style Presidential Debates | Pioneer Press |
| 24 June 2004 | Free the Debates From Party Tyranny | Seattle Post-Intelligencer |
| 20 June 2004 | How About Real Debates | The Tennessean |
| 14 June 2004 | Repairing the Presidential Debates | The Oregonian |
| 14 June 2004 | Make Presidential Debates Real Ones | The Seattle Times |
| 12 June 2004 | Take Off the Gloves | Los Angeles Times |
| 31 May 2004 | George Farah interviewed on Washington Journal | C-SPAN |
| 25 May 2004 | Debate Challenge | CBS News |
| 25 May 2004 | More Presidential Debates Sought | Miami Herald / Knight Ridder |
| 25 May 2004 | New Group Eyes Canisius As Debate Site | The Buffalo News |
| 25 May 2004 | Debate Plan Has A Place for Carleton | Star Tribune |
| 25 May 2004 | Carleton Offered As Debate Site | Pioneer Press |
| 25 May 2004 | Presidential Debate in Delco? Swarthmore Face-Off Eyed | The Daily Times |
| 25 May 2004 | Presidential Debate May Come to Capital | The Columbus Dispatch |
| 24 May 2004 | Group Calls for Larger Presidential Debates | Fox News |
| 7 May 2004 | Act to Change Tired Format | Fort Lauderdale Sun-Sentinel |
| 20 April 2004 | Real Presidential Debates | The Harvard Crimson |
| 8 April 2004 | Only Bush-Kerry in TV Debates? | Christian Science Monitor |
| 3 March 2004 | No More Deceptive Debates | Knight Ridder Services |
| 8 February 2004 | Rural America Deserves Real Presidential Debate | Grand Forks Herald |
| 14 November 2003 | Get Debates Out of Parties' Grasp | Philadelphia Inquirer |
| 12 November 2003 | End the Debates Before They Start | New York Times |
Editorial note
The news page was last updated in October 2004 and was never added to afterwards. The press-release summaries are drawn from the Commission's own archived releases, which were issued on Open Debates letterhead from the National Press Building. The press office contact details printed on those releases are not reproduced here. The Washington Journal entry on the original page did not name the network; it is C-SPAN's morning program.
Sources
- News, citizensdebates.org (archived 4 September 2013)
- Press release, 12 January 2004 (archived)
- Press release, 12 February 2004 (archived)
- Press release, 8 March 2004 (archived)
- Press release, 24 May 2004 (archived)
- Press release, 16 August 2004 (archived)
- Press release, 23 August 2004 (archived)
This page was rebuilt from the Commission’s archived website. It is kept for reference; see the home page for what the Commission was.