Putting on the Candidates: The Use of Television in Presidential Elections

The next presidential election campaign on television is likely to feature many spot commercials for the candidates, short news clips of candidates in on-site appearances staged for television, unanswered addresses to the nation or news conferences by the incumbent, relatively limited opportunities for the principal candidates to address the electorate, and, until the last moment, uncertainty about whether the candidates will appear face-to-face in debates. This use of television in presidential campaigns may have negative effects, including unfairly favoring wealthy interests and incumbents, encouraging political factionalism, and placing pressures on broadcasters that threaten First Amendment principles. The public would be better served by permitting broadcasters to present the two leading candidates without having to provide equal time to all other candidates; by giving the principal candidates television time during the campaign to address the electorate; by the adoption of party rules requiring that candidates participate in televised presidential debates; and by encouraging the use of new communications technologies to provide additional political information to the voters.