Moderator must be part-referee, part-traffic cop: expert
Posted April 29, 2013 8:05 am.
This article is more than 5 years old.
VANCOUVER (NEWS1130) – BC’s four provincial leaders are in Vancouver tonight to square off in the one and only televised debate of the 2013 campaign. But what about the person whose job it is to keep those politicians in line?
Veteran broadcaster Jennifer Burke has been tapped for moderator duties. A top communications consultant says she will need to be part-traffic cop and part-referee in order to succeed.
Former TV anchor Russ Froese moderated the last provincial leaders debate in 2009 and says a good moderator never lets their own slant come through.
“It’s very important to be impartial and be seen to be impartial. It’s important that you don’t play favourites and that the candidates themselves don’t see you as playing favourites.”
“It creates a better dialogue if they feel that the umpire, the person in the middle, is being as fair as possible,” he explains.
“[They must] carry this thing along and make it informative for the people at home, the voters, to help them choose, stick to the format of the debate, not be intimidated, and be informed of the issues.”
Froese adds a lot of work and a lot of argument goes into the format itself.
“All the political parties are involved and they all have their own ideas about what order things should be [in], how long people should be allowed to talk, [and] how much direct interaction [or] rebuttal there should be,” he explains.
“Some people want more, some want less; so, it’s a very hot topic before it even gets to the air.”
Froese notes the moderator can end up becoming a traffic cop by trying to enforce those preset rules.
“The problem is, some people in the heat of the debate want to make an immediate rebuttal and it may not be their particular turn. So, that’s where the moderator has to… be forceful but also try to help the dialogue along and the conversation and say, ‘Listen, I’m just following the rules that you all agreed on.'”
Froese, who shared the Global anchor desk with Burke for a number of years in the 1990s, thinks she’ll do just fine. “I know Jennifer; she knows the issues, she’s been in the news game a long time, and she’ll do well. I know she will.”
One thing Froese like to see is a more open format, as he feels modern debates are too stage-managed to allow voters to really see how well leaders can think on their feet. “Then they get a much better sense of what that person, that candidate is really like and what they stand for.”
The 90-minute leades debate is tonight from 6:30 to 8 p.m. You can hear it live and uninterrupted on News1130 and watch it on City.
