As I told you yesterday, Newt Gingrich has threatened to pull out of future Republican debates unless the audience is allowed to bellow, weep, and cheer every time he throws them a disingenuous applause line. Gingrich even framed it as a free speech issue, which is total bullshit.
CNN told Huffington Post (via Poynter) that applause will be welcome at tomorrow night’s debate, but it can’t become a free-for-all:
“As we have done in the past, CNN will ask the audience to be respectful of the candidates,” a CNN spokesperson said. “We have always said that if audience reaction such as shouting or booing interferes with the debate or with the candidates’ answers, we will ask the audience to refrain.”
I wonder if Gingrich will take this as an assault on his liberties, too. Either way, tomorrow’s debate should be an interesting one, especially since Gingrich and Romney are running neck-and-neck.
Audience participation in the republican debates is the best part. Fuck the Golden Rule!
HOW MANY DEBATES WILL THERE BE??!! This is NUTS.
Newt can’t afford to pass up the free airtime.
“interesting” like mitch daniels.
They should hand out those noise maker things they use in soccer games.
@5 do long as they don’t let them take them to soccer games,I’m fine with that
I want to know what happened with Newt`s Grand Jury Inditement in 2009 in Texas over the Deaths of those inmates, which was linked to the private jail companys he owns.
ANOTHER fucking debate? How many of these each week can anyone watch?
Well, in my case, that would be “zero.” But I’m not even going back to skim the Live Slog archives for jokes any more.