Why Do Reporters Keep Describing the Debates as "Testy"?

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TheDev

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They said that the first debate was testy, then they said that the vice presidential debate debate was extremely testy, and now they're saying that the next debate will be even more testy! Why so testy, reporters?
 

Agent11

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Zesty would also work. Although I found the VP debate more zesty than the Presidential one.
 

UberNeuman

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johntesh.jpg


"Don't you mean... 'Teshty?'"
 

Juror No. 8

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Why Do Reporters Keep Describing the Debates as "Testy"?

For the same reason the television announcers at a professional wrestling match describe the bout they are covering as "testy". It's all part of the illusion of a fake competition between two guys who work for the same sponsors, promoters, and owners. On stage in front of an audience, they are "testy", but backstage they are best buddies patting each other on the back for the show they just put on.

I remember watching one of the 2004 debates between Bush and Kerry. Halfway through the debate it got very "testy". Bush said something a bit personal about Kerry and from then on Kerry's whole demeanor changed. Kerry spent the rest of the debate gritting his teeth and scowling at Bush. I honestly thought it was a genuine moment of pure hatred between the two men.

Well, the joke was on me and everybody else watching at home, because at the end of the debate, after the announcer signed off, the credits started to roll, and the camera began to pan away from the stage, both Bush and Kerry came to the center of the stage and happily glad-handed each while cackling like a couple of sly hyenas. The only people who saw it were the relatively small number in the studio where the debate was broadcast, and those at home who kept their eyes glued to the TV while the credits rolled. They put on a successful, convincing "show" and celebrated like a couple of stage actors who just nailed their lines.

Politics is theater, people. Wake up.
 

Rainsford

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The job of todays journalist is to make news.

Or, it often seems, to report on the dumbest/easiest aspect of actual news. The debate coverage has been almost entirely about "tone" and the impact on the horse race rather than the actual arguments any of the four men made. Foreign affairs have been abandoned because it's hard to cover (it's so far away, and many of those people don't speak English) and domestic affairs have been dumbed down because it's easier to talk about Biden laughing or Romney's energy than to actually cover what anybody said.
 

Fern

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Sep 30, 2003
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They said that the first debate was testy, then they said that the vice presidential debate debate was extremely testy, and now they're saying that the next debate will be even more testy! Why so testy, reporters?

I don't know, ratings I guess.

TBH, I found the debate between Biden and Ryan to be rather boring. Nevertheless, I watched and as usual flicked back and forth between MSNBC and Fox for post-debate analysis to see what both sides were saying. I started out with MSNBC and Rachel Madow was on raving about how the debate was so combative. She acted like an MMA fan who just got done watching the Forest Griffin/Stephan Bohner fight at ringside. She was that pumped up. I turned off the TV.

Fern
 
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