Three corporations withdraw sponsorship of Commission on Presidential Debates
Source: opendebates.org
For Immediate Release
October 2, 2012
Washington, D.C. In response to an organized email and letter-writing campaign, three of the ten corporations identified as sponsors of the Commission on Presidential Debates have withdrawn their sponsorship. Over the past week, advertising agency BBH New York, nonprofit organization YWCA, and tech giant Philips North America have terminated their sponsorship as a result of accusations that the Commission is anti-democratic and subservient to the major parties. Never before has a sponsor of the Commission withdrawn its support.
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Since its creation by the Republican and Democratic parties in 1987, the Commission has raised millions of dollars from its corporate sponsors. Anheuser-Busch has been, by far, the largest contributor to the Commission, serving as national sponsor of every debate held since 1996. At the debate themselves, Anheuser-Busch girls have distributed Bud Light and pamphlets denouncing beer taxes to journalists and campaign staff.
The Commission is co-chaired by individuals with loyalties to the major parties and a history of lobbying on behalf of corporations. Co-chair Frank Fahrenkopf is the former chair of the Republican Party and the nation's leading gambling lobbyist, as head of the American Gaming Association. Co-chair Mike McCurry is the former press secretary to President Bill Clinton and has lobbied extensively on behalf of the telecommunications industry.
In 1986, the Republican and Democratic National Committees ratified an agreement "to take over the presidential debates" from the nonpartisan League of Women Voters. Fifteen months later, then-Republican Party chair Frank Fahrenkopf and then-Democratic Party chair Paul Kirk incorporated the Commission on Presidential Debates, and it has sponsored every presidential debate since. The Commission exercises a monopoly over the presidential debates and routinely implements and conceals debate contracts that are drafted behind closed-doors by the Republican and Democratic campaigns. Those contracts have often contained anti-democratic provisions that sanitize and weaken debate formats, exclude viable third-party candidates and prohibit additional debates from being held.
Read more: http://www.opendebates.org/threecorporationswithdraw.html
DreamGypsy
(2,252 posts)give the debates back to the League of Women Voters, and return the United States to its citizens.
'nuff said.
Plus Fours?
Javaman
(62,504 posts)gopiscrap
(23,726 posts)alfredo
(60,071 posts)sinkingfeeling
(51,438 posts)AnOhioan
(2,894 posts)annabanana
(52,791 posts)Skittles
(153,113 posts)they are pure dog and pony show
dixiegrrrrl
(60,010 posts)I miss the non-partisan, non-corporate debates and elections that we used to have.
And find it amazing that Dem candidates would appear in such heavily commercially backed events.
PSPS
(13,580 posts)AnOhioan
(2,894 posts)The Dems are not blameless in this matter.
dixiegrrrrl
(60,010 posts)"And find it amazing that Dem candidates would appear in such heavily commercially backed events".
alp227
(32,006 posts)AnOhioan
(2,894 posts)But both candidates assumed he would draw votes from the other....hence his inclusion. 4 years later, although he ran again..no sign of him in the debates.
burrowowl
(17,632 posts)Long live the LWV and down with the FEC and the US of A should become a parliamentary system.
harmonicon
(12,008 posts)I absolutely rely on their voter guides for the down ticket races. I think we'd have a more informed electorate - by far - if there were no campaigning or advertising, and every voter just looked at the candidates' answers to the questions in those voter guides.
Beartracks
(12,799 posts)harmonicon
(12,008 posts)Check their website. It is voluntary for the candidates to participate, but there's no editorializing. The league just asks some simple questions and gives them a short space to reply. I know that I've read the paper guide before while filling out an absentee ballot, but I'm pretty sure I've used an online one as well. Just hope that the candidates in your area were a part of it.
DeSwiss
(27,137 posts)K&R
skeewee08
(1,983 posts)defacto7
(13,485 posts)KauaiK
(544 posts)It was only THIS year that I realized that the parties had taken over the debates. When the presidential debates first started it was sponsored and put on by the League of Women Voters. It should go back to them and be non-partisan.
Spitfire of ATJ
(32,723 posts).....sheeze......
Wednesdays
(17,317 posts)After all, college guys never drink Bud Light nor catch STDs, right?
Spitfire of ATJ
(32,723 posts)madrchsod
(58,162 posts)Spitfire of ATJ
(32,723 posts).....at least on paper....
bucolic_frolic
(43,060 posts)A liberal one, a conservative one, a private one, a public one
a graduate school, an arts school. Surely there are many
well known schools that have government departments, and many
of them not in Washington DC.
jerseyjack
(1,361 posts)wouldn't participate. They prefer the corporatist system that funds their jobs.