10/02/00 4:45 p.m.
CNN's Debate Agenda
A plan to tout campaign-finance reform during "news" coverage.

By NR's John J. Miller & Ramesh Ponnuru

CNN press release dated today says that the cable network will provide "the most complete election coverage" between now and November 7, and notes that it will hold televised town meetings after each of the three presidential debates.

The statement continues: "The series of town meetings is part of Time Warner's plan to support campaign-finance reform through voter education. Time Warner has recently announced a four-point program to change the company's policies on its involvement in the U.S. political process: to eliminate soft money contributions; strengthen its PAC; support campaign finance reform; and enhance campaign coverage."

In other words, CNN will host television events — ostensibly news shows — as part of a parent-company "program" to "support campaign finance reform."

Last November, Time-Warner CEO Gerald Levin said he wanted to "add momentum to the bipartisan effort to make the process by which we Americans choose our political leadership fairer and more open, less subject to manipulation and more representative."

Can't you see Judy Woodruff doing her thing after the first debate tomorrow night? "There should have been more discussion of Gore's participation in the Buddhist temple fundraiser! He still hasn't explained himself! Our political process has suffered enough from manipulation and misrepresentation!"

Well, maybe not.

Asked to comment on whether the corporate goal to "support campaign-finance reform" interferes with CNN's news objectivity, a Time-Warner spokesman said: "I don't know what I can add to further clarify what we said in that announcement. It speaks for itself."

Ordinary People
It's great that Al Gore is meeting with regular human beings to figure out how to present himself during the debate. But while his dozen citizen coaches may indeed be the people Gore "hope[s] to serve as president," they're not exactly representative of the country. The dozen include 7 public-sector employees, 1 retired federal bureaucrat, and 1 activist.

If Bush Had Said It. . .
Al Gore, in today's New York Times, on what he'll do during his debate with Bush: "I'll be communicating less on him and more on the people watching. That will be my single-minded focus."