Election debates too important to be left to amateurs: Robin Sears

Excellent analysis of the botched leaders' debates.
Excerpts:
"David Walmsley learned a hard public lesson on Thursday night in Calgary: successfully moderating a live political debate is a fine art that requires a rare skill set hard to acquire. As a result, there was a surprising degree of pundit unanimity about the winners and losers of the economic debate. The Globe and the audience who stayed with the amateur production lost. The broadcast consortium won. . . .
"Live television production is a complex challenge requiring dozens of professionals and big budgets. Sadly, the Calgary event offered some clear evidence of that, looking more like a community cable channel production."
The full column