Debate debate: Two chances to see/hear MO gubernatorial hopefuls

KCUR-FM has just announced that Missouri Attorney General Jay Nixon and Rep. Kenny Hulshof will debate at 11 a.m. Thursday morning on public radio stations throughout the state.

If, however, you're one of those people who doesn't care to listen to federally funded socialistic NPR crapola, then I have three letters for you: F-O-X.

The Fox affiliates at either end of the state will have Nixon and Hulshof in studio for another face-to-face on Saturday night -- and this time, you'll actually get to see their faces. Here's the release.

KTVI AND WDAF TV STATIONS TO LIVE BROADCAST MISSOURI GUBERNATORIAL DEBATE

ST. LOUIS, Mo. - On Saturday, October 18th, 2008, FOX 2 in St. Louis and FOX 4 in Kansas City will co-host a Missouri Gubernatorial Debate. The debate will be held in St. Louis from 6 -7 pm, in the KTVI FOX 2 Studios. Kenny Hulsof and Jay Nixon will face a panel of four journalists, including WDAF's John Holt and Shelli Lockhart, along with KTVI's Betsy Bruce and Elliott Davis. KTVI's Charles Jaco will moderate the debate. The debate will be simulcast on both stations and can be heard on KTRS 550 AM radio in St. Louis.

"We are delighted to participate with our sister station WDAF in simulcasting the Gubernatorial Debate from Kansas City and St. Louis. It is our intention to mark this, as what we hope will be, the beginning of our stations' goals to inform and educate our respective communities," said Spencer Koch, Vice President and General Manager of KTVI FOX 2.

Cheryl McDonald, Vice President and General Manager of WDAF FOX 4 stated, "Partnering resources from two Missouri news leaders is a great step in driving home what local television news is all about. Both FOX news stations have outstanding journalists who will shed light on this important gubernatorial race."

Comments

[Mark]

I don't mean to sound negative but unfortunately it doesn't look like this televised debate will be much better than the "federally funded socialistic NPR crapola" as it is not going to provide full information to people either.

Why are valid candidates like Andy Finkenstadt (Libertarian) and Gregory Thompson (Constitution Party) not invited to participate in these debates? Excluding candidates from debates certainly does not serve to "inform and educate" voters to make good decisions. I think people definitely deserve to know about all available options in order to make the best choice. If a candidate is on the ballot, invite them to the debates.

I've heard some arguments for not including third party candidates in debates like "it will confuse voters", or "they are not popular enough to win", etc. Why should it be the role of the media to decide what is confusing for people? Why not simply allow all the viewpoints to be presented and then let the people decide? As for not being popular enough to win, maybe if fair coverage was given to all the candidates and if third party candidates could participate in more debates then they would be more "popular".

I know all of the candidates did participate in the Missouri Press Association debate which was great to see, however I think these radio/TV debates will reach an even wider audience and I don't think it's fair to exclude candidates from them.