[Congressional Record Volume 146, Number 122 (Wednesday, October 4, 2000)]
[Senate]
[Page S9844]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                NBC AND FOX AND THE PRESIDENTIAL DEBATES

  Mr. DORGAN. Mr. President, I also wish to say a word today about NBC 
and Fox, the two television networks that have decided they would not 
broadcast the Presidential debates live. I think it is deplorable, 
really, that networks, that use the public airwaves, and have some 
responsibility here with respect to the public good and public 
interest, have decided that Presidential debates are not important 
enough to preempt other programming.
  I notice that NBC said its local affiliates could make their own 
judgment. It is not as if NBC, according to Mr. Kennard, the Chairman 
of the Federal Communications Commission, has not interrupted regular 
programming previously. In fact, they have interrupted sports 
programming previously. NBC, last evening, said: We have a contract to 
show a New York Yankees-Oakland Athletics playoff game. So they did not 
really want to, on a national basis, show the Presidential debate live. 
They did allow their affiliates to make that decision.
  Mr. Kennard points out in an op-ed piece in the New York Times that 
in 1994 NBC was showing the NBA finals, the basketball finals, but they 
cut away from the basketball finals to follow that white Bronco that 
was meandering around the highways of Los Angeles with O.J. Simpson in 
the backseat. So they were able to cut away from the NBA finals to deal 
with the O.J. Simpson saga in that white Bronco, we remember so well, 
but they could not cut away from a playoff game--not the World Series; 
a playoff game--in baseball to televise the Presidential debate.
  Fox News is another story. They did not give their affiliates any 
choice. From their standpoint, ``Dark Angel'' was important last night, 
entertainment programming. Apparently Fox News' entertainment 
programming is more important than televising the Presidential debates 
for the American people.
  I agree with Bill Kennard, the Chairman of the Federal Communications 
Commission. He wrote a piece that says: ``Fox and NBC Renege on a 
Debt.'' It seems to me, in this country we ought to take this system of 
ours seriously. Presidential debates are very important. They have a 
wonderful and hallowed tradition in this country. It seems to me that 
television networks have a responsibility to the American people to 
provide live coverage of those debates.
  I regret that NBC did not. And I would say to the NBC affiliate in 
Washington, DC, they decided to carry the debate. Thank you for doing 
that. Good for them. But Fox News did not give any of their affiliates 
that choice. I think they have made the wrong choice.

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