Press Release

Special Report: Change the Debate
How Gaffes, Games, and Gotchas Dominated the 2008 Presidential Primary Debates

** To Watch the Video or Read the Full Report, CLICK HERE **

Washington, DC - As Sens. John McCain and Barack Obama prepare to face off Friday in their first general-election debate, Media Matters Action Network today released a new study documenting how, with few exceptions, the media figures who moderated the presidential primary debates focused on campaign gaffes, political tactics and issues of personality, and how critical policy issues were pushed aside as a result.

With the financial markets in turmoil and an ongoing housing crisis, this timely report documents how questions about the economy, the environment, executive power, and other salient issues took a back seat to frivolous and trivial matters during the presidential primary debates.

In fact, over the course of 31 debates analyzed in the report, the American public heard little about the candidates' perspectives and proposals on many of the most important challenges facing country. Among the report's findings:

• Overall, 32 percent of the questions asked in debates were non-substantive, i.e. they concerned campaign gaffes, political tactics, or issues of personality.

• Twenty-one percent of the questions did not even touch on a policy issue. Foreign policy and national security, including Iraq, was the most common topic of questions. While the public today rates the economy as the most important issue facing the country, only 9 percent of the debate questions addressed the economy.

• As the primary campaign progressed, the debates became less and less substantive. By the primary campaign's final period, non-substantive questions outnumbered substantive questions.

• The front-running candidates in both parties were more likely to be asked questions focused on trivia, while the candidates trailing badly in the polls were more likely to be asked substantive questions. For example, 73 percent of the questions posed to Dennis Kucinich were substantive, while only 51 percent of the questions given to Barack Obama were substantive, and only 59 percent of the questions for John McCain were substantive.

• The debates hosted by PBS and Univision were the most substantive, with 100 percent and 82 percent substantive questions respectively. Fox and ABC hosted the least substantive debates; fewer than half the questions in each of those networks' debates were substantive.

Media Matters Action Network undertook this analysis to evaluate the media's performance during these debates in the hope that future debates will be more substantive and useful to voters.

"We've been told repeatedly that this is a historic election, and the challenges facing the country could hardly be more serious, from a faltering economy to tens of millions without health coverage to two wars still being waged overseas," said Paul Waldman, a Senior Fellow at Media Matters Action Network and the principal author of the report. "The upcoming debates give the American people their best opportunity to assess the perspectives of the candidates seeking to lead our country and the world. During the 2008 primaries, that opportunity was squandered. It would be a shame if it happened again."

**To find out more about the methodology and key findings, CLICK HERE.**

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