Neal Zoren's Broadcast Media
Debates at the national level have been completed, but rivals for one of Pennsylvania's U.S. Senate seats, longtime incumbent, Bob Casey (D), and challenger Dave McCormick (R) square off for their second debate this month at 7 p.m. on Oct. 15 on Channel 6.
That debate, moderated by morning news anchor Matt O'Donnell and 5 p.m. anchor Sherrie Williams, can be seen on all of WPVI's platforms. It will also be seen in Univision, Channel 65, with Ilia Garcia joining O'Donnell and Williams at the moderator's desk.
Casey and McCormick fenced fiercely on Wednesday in a debate sponsored by Nexstar's WHTM-TV (Channel 27) in Harrisburg, an ABC affiliate.
That showdown, moderated by ABC27's Dennis Owen, covered a wide range of topic including immigration, abortion, loyalties to presidential candidates, commerce in Pennsylvania, McCormick's residency, and Casey's willingness to vote with Democrats — e.g. Kamala Harris — to suspend the filibuster that calls for 60 "yea" votes to advance a Senate bill rather than a simple majority of 51 in regard to certain hot-button issues, such as abortion.
In Harrisburg, the candidates "fact-checked" each other, and each accused the other of rampant lying.
McCormick cracked, "There are a lot of Pinocchios here."
I am fond of saying, after listening to candidate in debate on any level that you could walk from here to Hawaii on all of their noses.
O'Donnell, Williams, and Garcia will question the candidates at WPVI in a studio with no audiences. The press will not have immediate access to the debaters.
Channel 6's parent network, ABC, will be involved by streaming the senatorial debate on the 24-hour channel ABC News Live. Coverage there includes a post-debate discussion led by "ABC News Live Prime" host Linsey Davis, who, frankly, I found to be the most blatantly and unapologetically partisan moderator during this debate season.
It was Davis primarily would got testy with presidential candidates, particularly Republican challenger Donald Trump and who fact-checked Trump as will but let Vice President Kamala Harris get away with whoppers such as Trump being part of the Heritage Foundation's Project 2025 document and his plans for a national pregnancy registry.
O'Donnell and Williams have a chance to show that local anchors might be fairer and better managers of time than their national counterparts.
Their colleague, Brian Taff, though he could not get Harris to veer much from her now-familiar script, asked thoughtful questions that were specific and clear in intent.
I thought he did as well, if not better, than the debate moderators on CNN, Jake Tapper and Dana Bash, ABC, David Muir and Linsey Davis, and CBS, Norah O'Donnell and Margaret Brennan.
The results were the same, but Taff, via good questions, gave it a worthy try.
The best debate of this political season so far was the meeting between vice presidential candidates, Sen. JD Vance (R), and Gov. Tim Walz (D).
It was refreshing to see opponents who sparred pointedly with each other but maintained a respectful decorum that never devolved into a verbal slugfest, a volley of interruptions, or name calling.
It was clear that Vance of Ohio was most comfortable rhetorically and as a presenter of his case than Walz of Minnesota, but both contenders were articulate, direct and willing to conduct a contrapuntal dialogue of a kind that has not been seen since before Trump's arrival on the political stage in 2015.
Yes, there was much that could stand fact-checking in what each said, but their congenial approach to the duel and civilized demeanor made it pleasant to listen to their individual points of view and welcome their areas of agreement.
I make a point while writing about national debates and news coverage that I favor CBS, the network that produced the vice presidential debate, because its anchor, Norah O'Donnell, and commentators, while displaying bias, are not as flagrant as David Muir and his colleagues on ABC; Lester Holt, Savannah Guthrie, and their cohorts; or anyone on the intrinsically partisan cable/streaming stations, CNN, MSNBC, or Fox News Channel.
Fox News Channel was the platform on which more people watched the Vance-Walz debate, coming close to matching the presenting CBS for audience for the duration.
O'Donnell and her co-moderator, Margaret Brennan looked better than their colleagues from CNN or ABC, but mainly because Vance and Walz adhered for the most part to rules regarding time and tended to get around to responding to the question asked more than Trump or Harris did.
There was one kerfuffle that was meant to check Vance but backfired on Margaret Brennan.
While discussing immigration, Vance spoke of the Haitian population that has changed the demographics and lifestyle of Springfield, Ohio. Blessedly, Vance did not refer to any kidnapped and consumed pets.
Although there was an agreement that neither O'Donnell nor Brennan would fact-check either candidate in the course of the debate, Brennan, showing bias, could not resist.
She admonished Vance by reminding him that the immigrants mentioned were in Springfield legally under an Asylum Act that granted refugees from governments they feared a quicker road to access a legal place in America.
Vance turned tables on Brennan, even after CBS exercised its privilege to turn off his microphone and muting him, by pointing out the Asylum Act, legislated by the Joe Biden-Kamala Harris administration, may allow people to populate a city but it isn't the same as them choosing the city, joining relatives there, and settling there by choice.
They were placed there, will or nil the preference of Springfield residents.
It was shoddy work on Brennan's part turned into a great opportunity and turnaround by Vance to make clear the situation and his stance concerning it.
I am a columnist, not a moderator. I do not have to be impartial, and admit to favoring one ticket in the upcoming presidential race.
As a moderator, I would make sure no one had even a small inkling of what I thought personally.
In watching the Vance-Walz debate, I not only saw good political television for the first time in ages — O'Donnell and Brennan included — but saw something that would have made up my mind if I was undecided, as I was and remained in 2020.
I did not vote for President that year.
I heard a lot of people say they wished Vance and Walz were at the top of their tickets based on last Wednesday's meeting.
What I saw in Vance, was a clarity in position and presentation of that position that convinced he, alone among all four of the candidates for our country's top offices, was the one I would want representing the United States in a summit with Vladimir Putin, Xi Jinping, Benjamin Netahyahu or whomever in today's leadership interregnum represents European, Asian or southern continent interests.
Frankly, since I already made my choice for 2024 and can wait until Nov. 5 to exercise it, I looked at Vance and saw 2028 with him and Iowa governor Kim Reynolds, who is too bright to get mixed up in 2024 nonsense, as a star ticket.
On a lighter note, I have taken the initiative to end the barrage of political messages I receive, mostly polls and bulletins disguising pleas for money, by writing "Stop" several times a day at each new transmission.
Now I no longer have to hear from Harris, Trump, their running mates, Nancy Pelosi, Marco Rubio, Chuck Schumer, Barack Obama or myriad politicians, I have cut off George Clooney and other celebrities who thinking I extend any admiration I have for them as a performer to their politics.
My editor tells me he received a pitch from Barbra Streisand!
It takes a daily effort — those pols must have dozens of dedicated lines, so when I cut off, say, 2136, they text me on 2137, — but it's worth it. I loved the laughs I got from reading some of the twaddle, a true waste of campaign funds, but I prefer of the peace from being shed of it.
'Windy Hill' a fine show
An antidote to politics or anything that ails you is a visit to Malvern's People's Light & Theatre Co. to see a wonderful new piece that is a delightful throwback to a time when entertainment told engaging stories, incorporated cheering music, and let complexity emerge in human fashion from simplicity.
The show is "The Porch of Windy Hill" and between its cast of three charming actors who are also rousing musicians and a plot that resonates but knows how to stay within bounds of familiar reality, it makes you wonder why today's theater tries to knock your socks off when it can rivet you with something as basic as a plot that may apply to many, delightful musical interludes, and sentiment that doesn't advocate much beyond forgiveness, giving in to nostalgia, and letting humans be humans.
Writers Sherry Stregack Lutken, Lisa Helmi Johansen, Morgan Morse and David M. Lutken weave a warm tale about a young woman who accidentally, and surprisingly, reunites with a grandfather she hadn't seen in more than 20 years, since her family fled from his presence in rancor.
Folk ways of North Carolina mesh with the urbanity of New York on the porch mentioned in the show's title. Just as interestingly, the Lutkens and their associations include some interesting tidbits about music, its history and traditions in their text.
They do this by having the granddaughter's fiance be a doctoral candidate in, get ready for it, ethnic musicology.
The scholarship that character spouts is more accessible and fascinating than you might think when you hear about his field.
David M. Lutken, as he's proved on several occasions at People's Light, is a subtle yet assured entertainer whose deadpan responses as the grandfather are are entertaining as his stints on the guitar, banjo, dulcimer, harmonica and other instruments.
EJ Zimmerman is moving and able to elicit sympathy and disdain as the granddaughter while showing her prowess with several genres on the violin.
Rob Morrison makes anthropology fun while playing the middle man between the woman he loves and a man whose music he's known and respected.
Best of all, "The Porch of Windy Hill" proves that straightforward scripts, with enough jokes and music to offset the serious sequences, has a place in a theater that seems more inclined to declaim and overdo when all it has to do is tell a warm but thorny story, throw in a banjo interlude, and let actors impress you with their charm and sincerity.
By the way, every Thursday, after the show, which it behooves you to see, Lutken, Zimmerman, Morrison, and others put on a hootenanny that is scheduled to go for about 45 minutes but can carry on longer if the mood strikes and the crowd is right.
People coming to the hootenanny are encouraged to bring along their instruments. Just make sure they are acoustic.
The play has been extended through Oct. 20.
The good stuff on TV
"The Penguin," on Apple TV continues to look like the hit of the season.
Colin Farrell is monumental as Oswald Cobblepot, and the plot becomes more interesting as episodes unfold.
Shows I'm looking forward to sampling over the next week are "Franchise," an HBO series about a team involved with superhero movies; "The Melendez Brothers" on Netflix, even if it is by Ryan Murphy, who most of the time turns me off with his glitz but at times finds the right note, as he did with "Dahmer"; and Wednesday's season premiere of ABC's "Abbott Elementary," which I have not liked to date because of its fast-take approach to situations rather than building an extended story, but which I am inclined to give another chance.
At some point, I want to like a series set in Philadelphia.
The show I anticipate with the most enthusiasm is "Disclaimer" a series that begins Friday on Apple.
Two reasons for my curiosity are director Alfonso Cuarón, who helmed "Gravity" (2013) and "Roma" (2018) and Cate Blanchett, whom I consider the single best actress of her generation.
"Disclaimer" is billed as a psychological thriller in which Blanchett's character, a television reporter, is about to do a story on a new well-received book and recognizes herself as the lead character.
