ABSTRACT
At approximately 9:50 p.m. EST on September 23, 1976, the first televised Jimmy Carter-Gerald Ford debate was nearing its end. Gerald Ford, in 1974, had become the first unelected president of the United States. Then, in 1976 he became the first to risk his incumbency in a series of televised debates. The major analysis of the debate turned on the comparison of the "before" with the "after" data under two exposure conditions— controlled and contaminated. The news media, especially television, have repeatedly been charged with sensationalism, with emphasizing the unusual and dramatic at the expense of the normal and routine. Yet in the case of the audio breakdown that interrupted this first Carter-Ford debate, a development with real dramatic potential, some problematic issues arising from the loss of sound were effectively routinized. Like other industries, television is perhaps more concerned about dramatizing its own public role than exposing and dealing with some of the dilemmas that arise from its presence.
