Letters: SCETV needs to offer real congressional debates

I am a proud former employee of South Carolina ETV. Public broadcasting represents the bellwether for community service; its relative freedom from corporate interests gives it freedom that commercial broadcasting can never hope to match. This is why I was dismayed by SCETV’s decision not to air congressional debates.

The public should not settle for the “compromise” approved by the ETV Commission. Conducting individual interviews with the candidates is not adequate. Nor is it in accordance with the spirit of the Communications Act and Federal Communication Commission’s rules on the obligations of broadcasters regarding the free flow of information during the electoral process.

Opting for interviews over debates does nothing to preserve scarce resources and fails to provide the riposte and rebuttal that is critical to public assessment of the candidates and their positions.

SCETV must provide reasonable access and airtime in its capacity as a federally licensed broadcaster. I define “reasonable access” as airing a debate in each congressional district during a prime time/drive time broadcast, simulcast on South Carolina Public Radio.

I encourage SCETV to enlist Charles Bierbauer, Walter Edgar, Russ McKinney and/or Kevin Alexander Gray as debate moderators, due to their extensive experience and knowledge of politics.

Although this issue has been presented to the public as a partisan concern, I hold that no South Carolinian, regardless of political ideology, should be deprived of the opportunity to see their federal candidates compete in reasoned debate, in the setting that SCETV was created and designed to provide.

This story was originally published October 2, 2016 at 6:02 PM with the headline "Letters: SCETV needs to offer real congressional debates."