Stateside with Rosalea
Veep, Veep
You only had to look at who was moderating last night's vice presidential debates to see how rankism works in the United
States. And the saddest thing is that many people would think that it was sooo democratic and inclusive to have a
non-white, non-male sitting in the moderator's chair.
Let's look at who is moderating the presidential debates. Jim Lehrer was the first; he's the anchor and executive editor
of The Newshour on PBS, the public broadcasting channel. The next one will be Charles Gibson, co-anchor, ABC News Good
Morning America, and the third will be Bob Schieffer, CBS News chief Washington correspondent, and moderator, Face the
Nation. Those programs are respectively evening news, morning news, and Sunday talking heads and are all carried on
free-to-air nationwide networks.
The veep debate moderator, Gwen Ifill, is a senior correspondent on The Newshour, and the moderator of Washington Week,
another PBS program. Judging from her work, which includes interviewing some extremely testy guests live on air in just
that exact moderator-plus-two format, there is no reason in the world that she shouldn't be the moderator of a
presidential debate. Except for sheer rankism, which was probably in play on several levels.
Perhaps the anchors of news and current affairs shows on the other free-to-air national network, NBC, and on the cable
TV stations turned down the offer of moderating a veep debate because it would make them look like lesser beings. And
perhaps the presidential candidates refused to be moderated by a mere "senior correspondent" because they thought it
would somehow diminish the importance of what they had to say.
You probably think these comments against rankism are a bit odd coming from someone who supports ranked choice voting -
the very essence of which is obviously ranking things! But there is a great difference between ranking people on their
merit and ranking people on their job title or their race, age, gender, etc, in the mistaken belief that those
attributes equate to their merit.
Anyways, I didn't get home till near the end of the debate and as usual was more curious about how it was presented to
the many different audiences here in the States, than in its content. Curiously, the subscription channels
(cable/satellite) all use split screens so you can see the other person's reaction, but none of the free-to-air channels
that carry the debates do.
As usual after the debate, it had to be interpreted for us by the punditry. I've just recently learned that the
existence of that class of folks arose out of the way in which the university system evolved in the US. Getting a degree
very quickly became a mark of the middle class here at the end of the nineteenth century, and as the middle class grew
in numbers and in its sense of self-importance, the "trade", if you will, of being an expert and interpreter to the
general public also grew in size and importance.
One of the CSPAN channels - a cable entity that broadcasts Congress, etc - instead of a pundit-fest had three phone
lines open for callers at the end of the veep debate. One line was for Cheney supporters, ditto Edwards supporters, and
the third line for undecideds. I get the impression those lines are rigged in the sense that the parties have people
standing by to call in, so you end up hearing some pat comment rather than the spontaneous reaction of a free-thinking
individual.
One ratbag from California got on air via the undecided line and said that he still didn't like either Cheney or
Edwards, but he wished he could have seen Peter Camejo up there in the debate. Camejo is Ralph Nader's vice presidential
running mate, and he made an excellent showing for himself when he was included in the debates here in CA when he was
running for governor on the Green Party ticket.
Nader isn't the Green Party nominee for President this time around, though he is on the ballot in most states either as
an independent candidate or as the nominee of one (and in one state, two) of any number of smaller parties. But not in
California, where the Democrats managed to keep the Nader-Camejo ticket off the ballot altogether. As the caller to
CSPAN said, he'll be writing in Nader's name when he goes to vote.
-ENDS-