Fox News Further Relaxes Republican Debate Criteria Every candidate will get a chance

[Stellar]

Fox News Further Relaxes Republican Debate Criteria Every candidate will get a chance

Fox News, which is hosting the first Republican presidential primary debate on Aug. 6, has been criticized for limiting the stage to the 10 candidates leading in the polls. In response, the network announced last month that it would host another debate earlier that day for second-tier candidates with at least 1 percent support in the polls.

But now, Fox News is relaxing the criteria even further, doing away with the 1 percent polling requirement and allowing the full slate of 16 candidates the opportunity to appear in either the main debate at 9 p.m. EST or another event at 5 p.m. EST. In effect, the change will allow candidates like Carly Fiorina, former New York Gov. George Pataki and Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) access to a stage.

“In a concerted effort to include and accommodate the now 16 Republican candidate field -- the largest in modern political history -- Fox News is expanding participation in the 5 p.m. EST debate to all declared candidates whose names are consistently being offered to respondents in major national polls, as recognized by Fox News,” said Michael Clemente, Fox News’ executive vice president for news, in a statement to Politico.

more at link:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/fox-news-debate-criteria_55b8c14de4b0074ba5a6c5ea?utm_hp_ref=media

[Turbineguy]

1. I suppose they don't want to look

like they are rigging the election. They have to at least still pretend it's a democracy.

[OffWithTheirHeads]

2. That works out to 5 1/2 minutes per candidate invluding moderator questions.

so the only way for any of them to get any traction is to be the one who says the stupidest thing.

some Democracy we have.

[Laf.La.Dem.]

7. 5 1/2 minutes!!

Trump will take over and talk 30 minutes

[onenote]

10. Not following your math

Both the prime time and afternoon debates are scheduled to run 90 minutes. If there are 10 candidates in the primetime debate, that's 9 minutes per candidate. And if there are six candidates in the afternoon debate, that's 15 minutes per candidate.

[OffWithTheirHeads]

12. I thought they were going to just do one debate with everybody.

[onenote]

13. Nope. Still two debates. The story was very badly written.

[TeddyR]

3. This debate

Should be high comedy.

[Stellar]

5. At least to us liberals...

the wingers will take it seriously.

[Buns_of_Fire]

4. Better still: Four 4-candidate quarterfinal cage matches,

followed the next week by two 8-candidate semifinal cage matches, followed by the world-championship 16-candidate cage match.

Nobody gets eliminated. I just like to watch them beat up each other.

[Arugula Latte]

6. Here's a preview of what it will look like:

[bullwinkle428]

8. Do they seriously believe any candidate will CHOOSE to participate in the

non-prime-time "kiddie table" debate at 5:00?

[onenote]

11. If it's the only debate they can participate in...sure

The story is badly written. Only the top ten candidates in the polls get into the primetime debate. Originally, only candidates with at least 1 percent, but not in the top ten, could get in the kiddie debate. Now candidates with even less than 1 percent can get in the kiddie debate. Admittedly, it's not clear that a candidate from the top ten list could participate in the kiddie debate if they wanted to do so, but I'm confident that they don't intend to allow candidates to participate in both and that no top ten candidate would give up the prime time spot for the kiddie debate.

[dembotoz]

9. Would propose a drinking game...sip each time something stupid is said

But my liver says no