Presidential Debate Talks Break Down

Negotiations for presidential debates designed to prompt more direct interaction between the general election candidates have apparently broken down because a nonprofit group representing the two major political parties differed with the four major television networks over details of the format.

The debate proposal was initiated last year by ABC, CBS, CNN and NBC. It included several ideas to make the events less of a forum for competing speeches and more of an actual give-and-take, including eliminating live audiences, commercials and panels of questioners.

The networks had already committed time and specific dates and had agreed to supply their studios for the debates. They also proposed that each of the debates be moderated by one of their anchorpersons.

But this week, after more than six months of talks, the Commission on Presidential Debates, a nonprofit group working on behalf of the two parties, sent a letter rejecting the proposal.

“There are just a number of insoluble problems,” said Frank J. Fahrenkopf Jr., the former Republican Party chairman who co-chairs the commission with Paul G. Kirk Jr., a former Democratic Party chairman.

Commission representatives were apparently upset that the networks wanted to control production of the debates and that they insisted on having their anchorpersons serve as the moderators. The commission wanted to include print journalists as possible moderators.

But network officials, some of whom had misgivings about being too involved in organizing the debates in the first place, said these and other issues were negotiable.

The network officials said they believe that the hidden issue that snagged the talks is that the political parties want to maintain control over the debate format to avoid possible embarrassment of their candidates.