The Cable Gamer isn't always a fan of The Washington Post's Tom Shales, but when he's hot, he's hott. And his review of the CNN/YouTube debate is a smoker. The whole piece is well worth a read, but here's the good stuff:
Not every candidate was asked every question, so the format was inherently inequitable. At one point Cooper said, "Our next question is for Senator [Joe] Biden," immediately followed by a video in which a man began, "Hello. This question is for all of the candidates."
Cooper was obsessed with the candidates' keeping answers brief, frequently interrupting them or cutting them off. This impulse, supposedly designed to curb long-windedness, leads to "debates" that are just collections of quotes and sound bites, like political commercials, and is precisely the kind of thing that has helped trivialize issues and discourage voter interest.
