Forgive me for thinking it's the NBA Finals in the late 1970's, but what's with so many important political debates leading up to August 24 primary in Florida being tape delayed?
Last night audiences in Tampa and Orlando at least got to see the Republican candidates for Attorney General – Pam Bondi, Jeff Kottkamp and Holly Benson mix it up for an hour. However, viewers who read Steve Bosquet's review of the debate in the St. Pete Times on Sunday got all of the highlights hours earlier- such as how Pam Bondi was the strongest she's been seen in such a forum -and really had no incentive to stick around until 8 p.m. to watch.
Now we've got the same scenario tonight: Kendrick Meek and Jeff Greene debated yesterday in St. Pete, but Bay News 9 locally isn't airing the hour long forum until 8 p.m. Monday night. Seriously? This is 2010, okay, the land of 24/7 all news, all the time, and we've got wait around for a taped version?
I'm sure the local television stations might say that scheduling conditions required pre-recording the events. I guess, though considering Bay News 9 is an all-news station, it's not like they've got some special programming on when these debates were held live, right?
This article appears in Jul 29 – Aug 4, 2010.