The bi-partisan group of online activists pushing to liberate debate footage from copyright restriction, and more broadly to remold presidential debates for a new age, says it will involve itself in other debates in the off-years, and gear up for 2012.Norquist also tells us: "There is no excuse for the Commission imposing their will on the debates, despite the wishes of both major party candidates and a broad grassroots coalition on the right and left."
The conservative activist Grover Norquist is also joining the group, he said last night.
"I'm happy to join the Open Debate Coalition in calling for dismantling the Commission or fundamentally reforming it so it is accountable to one constituency only: the public," he said in an email. "And, if the Commission wants to show any bit of responsiveness this year, they'll make sure that debate footage is put in the public domain so people can put clips on YouTube and otherwise share key moments without being deemed copyright lawbreakers."
If you'd like to join our open debates movement, sign up now in the yellow box on the right of this blog, or at the bottom of this post.
We clearly have big momentum. The Commission on Presidential Debates messed up big-time by completely ignoring the will of the people, and McCain and Obama, when it came to the "open debate principles" our coalition proposed. So now, the Commission must go -- and be replaced by a debate process that's democratic, transparent, and accountable to the people.
After you sign up in the yellow box, if you'd like to urge the Commission to follow Grover Norquist's advice and make sure debate video is put in the public domain, you can email the Commission's Executive Director Janet Brown at: jb@debates.org
