October 10, 2008 · Lessig
Now that both campaigns have signed on, we’ve focused the call for open debates to try to get some real progress. The new letter is below. Meanwhile, please sign up below to support the call for “open debates.” (The original letter to McCain and Obama is here.)
Join The Open Debate Movement – Sign Up Here
Open Debate Coalition
www.opendebatecoalition.org
Dear Senator McCain and Senator Obama,
Thank you for your
letters
affirming our coalition’s
designed to make this year’s presidential debates more “of the people” than
ever before. As we approach the final debate on October 15, we ask you to proactively
implement such principles right away.
The closed nature of the recent debates has been universally criticized. The
editors of Politico
“The presidential debate commission’s rules are a scandal” resulting in “a
format designed to limit improvisation, intellectual engagement, and
truth-telling.” 83% of Obama supporters and 75% of McCain supporters
lacking. Even Saturday Night Live spoofed the
of follow-up questions in the debates, and the
“town hall” questions chosen.
Therefore, we ask you to jointly announce the following in advance of the
October 15 debate:
1)
the debate moderator has broad discretion to ask follow-up questions after a
candidate’s answer, so the public can be fully informed about specific
positions.
2)
after a “town hall” debate full of questions handpicked by the moderator, none
of which were outside-the-box, you will allow Bob Schieffer to ask some
Internet questions voted on by the public in the fashion
our previous letter – which you agreed to.
will make this easy.
3)
as a stipulation of the next debate, the media pool must release all 2008
debate footage into the public domain – as you agreed would be in the
public interest.
ABC, and
rights during the primary, and
agreed more recently. But Fox
Senator McCain for using a debate clip during the primary, and
copyright law against Senator Obama to stifle political speech recently. The
public deserves to know debate video can be reused without fear of breaking the
law.
4)
you agree to work with the Open Debate Coalition after the election to reform
or create an alternative to the Commission on Presidential Debates, so that the
debate process is transparent and accountable to the public. Despite both of
your agreement with the open debate principles, the Commission did nothing to
implement them – or even to engage in dialogue about potential
implementation. Also, the “
memo of understanding” with debate rules is nowhere on the Commission’s
website, and has not been turned over despite requests.
The signers of this letter don’t agree on every political issue. But we do
agree that in order for Americans to make the best decision for president, we
need open debates that are “of the people” in the ways described above. You
have the power to make that happen, and we ask you to do so.
Thank you for your willingness to take these ideas to heart. If you have any
questions, please contact: OpenDebateCoalition@gmail.com
Sincerely,
Lawrence Lessig; Professor, Stanford Law School, Founder,
Ellen Miller; Executive Director, Sunlight
Foundation
Craig Newmark; Founder, Craigslist
Jimmy Wales; Founder, Wikipedia
Glenn Reynolds; Professor, University of Tennessee Law, and founder of Instapundit.com blog
Aaron Swartz; Founder,
Patrick Ruffini; Republican consultant, Former Republican National Committee
eCampaign Director, and a blogger at TheNextRight.com
Mindy Finn; Republican strategist, former Mitt Romney Online Director, and blogger at TheNextRight.com
Eli Pariser; Executive Director, MoveOn.org
Political Action
Mike Krempasky; Co-Founder of RedState.com
Adam Green; Director of Strategic Campaigns, MoveOn.org
Political Action
Arianna Huffington; Founder, HuffingtonPost.com
Markos Moulitsas; Founder, DailyKos.com
Roger L. Simon, CEO, Pajamas Media
Eric Burns; President, Media Matters
for America
David Kralik; Director of Internet Strategy, Newt Gingrich’s American Solutions
Carl Pope; Executive Director, Sierra Club
John Amato; Founder of Crooksandliars.com
K. Daniel Glover, Executive Producer,
Eyeblast.tv, and of AirCongress
Jon Henke; New media consultant (including
for Fred Thompson, George Allen, Senate Republican Caucus) and a blogger at
Matt Stoller; Founder/Editor, OpenLeft.com
James Rucker; Executive Director, ColorOfChange.org
Andrew Rasiej; Personal
Democracy Forum and TechPresident.com
Micah Sifry; Personal Democracy
Forum and TechPresident.com
William Mitchell; Professor, MIT
Josh Silver; Executive Director, Free Press
Carl Malamud; Founder, Public.Resource.Org
Clay Johnson; Director, Sunlight Labs
Robert Greenwald; President, BraveNewFilms
Kim Gandy; President, National Organization for
Women
Roger Hickey; Co-Director, Campaign for
America’s Future
Billy Hallowell, Director of Content, VoterWatch
David Colarusso; Founder, communityCOUNTS.us
Comments
This seems to be assuming the role that the organization OpenDebates is supposed to play. OpenDebates was pretty active in the run-up to the 2004 election, but this time around they seem to have disappeared. It would be nice to see this effort unite with whatever remains of OpenDebates to form a robust organization in favor of presidential debate reform.