Presidential Debates
Fifty Years of High-Risk TV
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- $28.99
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- $28.99
Publisher Description
Alan Schroeder's popular history now covers the 2000 Bush-Gore and 2004 Bush-Kerry debates, including innovations in format and press coverage, and adds new research on televised debates since 1960. Schroeder organizes his book according to a television production timeline, highlighting the importance of pre- and postdebate periods, as well as the live telecasts themselves. He describes production in painstaking detail, from the selection of questioners to camera angles, from makeup to lighting and set design.
Televised debates represent a rare departure from well-choreographed campaigns, and new media such as YouTube continue to reshape form and content. Conducting interviews with journalists and industry insiders, and drawing on his own experience as an award-winning reporter and television producer, Schroeder delivers a fascinating backstage tour of every aspect of debate performance.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Ever since the 1960 Nixon-Kennedy debate, televised candidate confrontations have been a staple of presidential campaigns; they've gone from being a novelty, to being an option for candidates, to being expected and unavoidable. Viewed by millions of people--according to Schroeder, presidential debates get Super Bowl-sized ratings--the stakes could not be higher for the candidates. In this informative "backstage tour through the fractious world of presidential debates," Schroeder (a professor of journalism at Northeastern) reveals just how tightly these events are staged. Candidates and their staff at least try to control every aspect of the event--from the seating position of the spouses to the color of the sheet hanging behind the podiums. Even the campaigners' ad-libs are carefully scripted. Reagan's famous "There you go again" was planned out beforehand--as was vice presidential candidate Lloyd Bentsen's "You're no Jack Kennedy." Candidates spend weeks preparing themselves and making every attempt to prevent spontaneity. But happily, Schroeder notes, live TV cannot be totally scripted, and it is the rare moments of candor in increasingly pre-packaged campaigns that make the debates both good TV and educational for voters. Memorable unscripted moments include Bush's glancing at his watch in 1992 and the unfeeling reply Dukakis gave in 1988 to a question about the theoretical rape and murder of his wife. So, flawed as they are, the author suggests, presidential debates do matter. Indeed, they show signs of improving as new formats, like "town meetings," where real voters ask questions, loosening the candidates' grip on the process. In any event, they are not going away, and Schroeder's "tour" is a good one, sparked by lively writing and an eye for telling details. 3-city author tour.
