Wed 6 Jul 2005
Paul Hackett’s main hope for winning the Ohio 2nd special election is by getting into face to face debates with Jean Schmidt. The key to Schmidt’s success is to avoid letting as many people as possible see her debating the issues with Hackett.
It the battle over these strategies Schmidt is beating the Hackett campaign handily.
Schmidt’s first step was declining Hackett’s call for seven town hall forums around the district. Score one for Schmidt.
Ms. Schmidt’s second step was rescheduling the debate at Chatfield College for June 27th so that she could go to Washington and raise money ($60,000 I’m told, although her campaign manager denies that that was the reason for the trip). Score another point for Schmidt.
Now it turns out that the exclusive broadcast rights for tomorrows debate at Chatfield College has been given by the Secretary of the College’s board Bonnie White to Cincinnati’s Fox Channel 19, which has no plans of showing the entire debate, but will select out snippets to show on their news broadcast:
From: WXIX, Fox19 <programming@fox19.com>
Subject: RE: Tomorrows 2nd Congressional District Debate
Thank you for your message. FOX19's ten o'clock news anchor Jack Atherton will be the moderator for the debate. FOX19 will not broadcast the debate live or on a tape delay. We will, however, have highlights of the debate on our Ten o'clock News.
Thanks.
Rick Oliver
Operations Manager
What should have been a platform that would allow as many 2nd district voters as possible to compare the two candidates has instead been a tiny little drama that will only be availabe to a few and even then heavily edited and filtered by local media outlets.
You can say a lot of things about her, but you’ve got to admit… she knows how to run out the clock. Well played, Ms. Schmidt. Very well played.
UPDATE: I have heard from representatives from Fox News. We are still sorting out that whole “exclusive rights” thing which was the phrase used by Bonnie White, the representative from Chatfield College handling the debate.
Roamingcoyote in the comments says that Rick Oliver from Fox News has denied having “exclusive rights” over the debate.
My point to Fox News was that even though they may not have been given “exclusive rights” from a contract perspective, they have de facto exclusive rights over the video in the debate since they are the only ones broadcasting video from the event, and they will be exercising editorial control over what the public is allowed to see from the event. While this situation has come about because of the terms set down by Chatfield College, it is what it is.
more to come…
Are you going? Get video and audio and we’ll get it out there. I am not sure that exclusivity applies to us in this situation. It certainly has nothing to do with writing up a entry about your perceptions of the debate.
Tim
They are not letting the “public” take pictures. Fox News has the rights on recording video and they are the only ones that will be allowed.
I just got off the phone with Rick Oliver who claimed that channel 19 does not have exclusive rights. However I asked him if I could set up a camera and broadcast the debate and he said I would have to check with Bonnie White. I futher inquired if he knew how to contact Bonnie or if he had been in contact with her and he declined on both inquiries. Has anyone talked directly with Bonnie White?
The phrase “exclusive rights” was said to my by Bonnie White when I talked to her on the phone.
She did tell me that she had tried to contact other media sources to get them to cover it but that they declined.
They are only allowing “accredited” reporters take pictures or videos. That means no bloggers like me.