Series of Presidential Debates Proposed

Marvin Kalb thinks he has the answer to the decline in political discourse and interest in politics: a series of debates and conversations with the major-party presidential nominees, to be covered by the major broadcast networks, cable and public television.

Kalb, who spent 30 years as a CBS and NBC reporter and now heads Harvard University’s Joan Shorenstein Barone Center on the Press, Politics and Public Policy, unveiled the center’s “Nine Sundays” proposal at a Washington news conference Wednesday.

The plan would have broadcasters make 90 minutes of evening or prime time available every Sunday from Labor Day to Election Day, 1992.

Two segments would be debates between the Republican and Democratic presidential candidates, conducted with “no audience, no artificial hoopla and applause, no panel of journalists, one moderator, all to be done in a simple, unadorned TV studio.” There also would be a vice presidential debate and a concluding segment featuring speeches by the two presidential candidates.

The other five programs would each feature 40-minute “conversations” conducted separately with each candidate, focusing on one issue, such as abortion, taxes, education, Middle East policy or U.S.-Soviet relations. A moderator and two experts also would be on hand.

Commercial sponsorship would be limited to 90 seconds at the beginning of each show and 90 seconds at the end. The ad revenues would completely cover production costs, the center said, and profits could be used to counter any complaints or legal challenges arising from the broadcasts.

ABC, CBS and NBC would jointly cover all three debates and the concluding speeches. The remaining five programs would be carried on a rotating basis among them, with cable and public-TV outlets also free to air the programs. Such a plan would prove financially efficient in this era of cost-consciousness among the networks, Kalb said.

“Let’s say that you’re ABC or NBC and you’re up against ’60 Minutes’ and always losing,” Kalb said in an interview Wednesday. “You are also always putting up a million dollars or so of alternative programing and you’re losing that money.

“If you sponsor ‘Nine Sundays,’ and if you take into account these kind of programs are the cheapest ones to put on the air, this hour-and-a-half would cost the network a maximum of $100,000. If you sponsor it, even on a very low-rated basis, you’ll be (getting) $250,000. So you’ve made the $150,00 and saved the million that you’d have to spend.”

Kalb said that the reaction he has gotten from network officials has been “quite favorable.”

“I’m not talking about decisions having been made to do it, but very important people who have seen and read the ‘Nine Sundays’ proposal and called me and said, ‘Terrific. This is exactly right.’ ”

Official network reaction was more muted Wednesday.

“We plan to make our own editorial and programming judgements,” CBS News spokesman Tom Goodman said. “We laud the approach of covering the issues. It’s definitely the way to go. We plan to implement coverage based on many ideas and plans we have. Our priority is to avoid the photo opportunities and delve into issues.”

Spokesmen at ABC and NBC withheld immediate comment, saying that they had not yet seen the study.

At CNN, Tom Hannon, the network’s director of political coverage, said that many of the study’s conclusions “have merit,” but added that “they’ve crafted this primarily for the three broadcast networks. Whether it has any life depends on how they receive it.”

Kalb plans meetings with network executives in the next two weeks. He said that he also is optimistic that both presidential nominees will participate in the programs.

“The Democratic candidate, because he is very weak (in the polls), will seize on any opportunity for additional air time,” he said. And with regard to President Bush, who is expected to be the Republican standard-bearer again, he said, “What were are told is (that) the President is in such a strong position that he can afford to be magnanimous because he is going to win anyway.”

A White House spokesman said Wednesday that a copy of the report had been delivered to the White House last week while Bush was vacationing in Kennebunkport, Me., but that there was as yet no official reaction.