Go Outside And Play Instead

Two or five minutes is not enough time to fully cover any topic worthy of a presidential debate. Today's debate format does nothing more than lend itself to gotcha moments, made for TV sound bites to be repeated over and over. Everything is clearly delineated in black and white. Nuance and context are reduced to opportunity for gotcha moments, fodder for "See, I told you!" Breaking news on a broken medium that tells us what he said, shows us the entire 3.61 seconds of it, and then tells us again. More at eleven but we can't wait to tell you so we'll tell you now. And at 11:00. And in between.

One hundred and fifty years ago the debate participants would each get one hour to speak and then thirty minutes for rebuttal. Can you imagine such a thing happening today? Not hardly. Our attention spans demand immediate stimulation. We want to see a cat fight and then watch it again in slow motion so we can say "Nice shot." Then we're anxious to move on to the next myth busting dirty job of a shark attack that's destroyed in thirty seconds. Where's the remote? And what's that bright thing in the sky shining through the window?