Dan Kennedy

[Commentary] What could be more open and democratic than a debate? For all the rending of garments and gnashing of teeth now taking place over the massive amounts of free media bestowed upon Donald Trump, it was his dominating performance in the televised debates that allowed him to separate himself from the pack. Yet the debates themselves were an exercise in faux democracy. What really mattered, especially early on, was who got invited, who got to stand where and who was allowed to speak the most. Unfortunately, the media organizations that ran the debates (along with the Republican National Committee) relied on polls to make those decisions right from the very first encounter in August.

Needless to say, news organizations have been reveling in the ratings they received from their Trump-centric, made-for-television extravaganzas. But we’re choosing a president, not who should get fired during the next episode of “The Apprentice.” We should demand that our media give us more democracy — and trust that the public will find it interesting enough to watch.

[Dan Kennedy is an associate professor of journalism at Northeastern University in Boston (MA)]