Watching this year’s national election debates, I’ve been particularly fascinated by the moderators on two fronts. First, there are the styles each has used, and second, there’s the uproar their performances trigger among the partisans on either side. (Those who know me well know I’m apolitical, so if your immediate response to that sentence is to castigate one of those moderators for treating your candidate shabbily, this blog’s comments section isn’t the place.)
They fascinate me because they serve a similar role to that of the copywriter. They have to defend the interests of the audience from those who wish to control both the message and its delivery. Regardless of their own personal beliefs about the matters at hand, to be truly effective, they have to operate with objectivity and continually ask themselves whether the ultimate audience is getting the information it wants.