Social media essentially are media. They are commercial media companies. They have come onto the scene with a presence that has grown dramatically in the last few years. They play a significant role in engaging younger people in particular. One of the things we have tried to wrestle with, Ms. Tassi, is that in this country there has been an effort by social media to put themselves in a unique category that requires unique care and attention in terms of their ability to play a central role in the debates.
We believe there's no question that they should be accommodated in terms of space to be on site and covering debates. They clearly have significant capacity to bring to the discussion about issues that will be raised in the debates and leading up to the debates, and to have online discussions that would involve and engage people who otherwise may not find this interesting or accessible.
One needs to remember that at the end of the day, a debate-sponsoring organization is in the business of at least a couple of important things. One is securing the agreement of the candidates to participate. Without that, there are no debates. The second is focusing on formats that will create the most informative content that you can, and then saying to media companies of whatever variety, “Please cover this. Please engage your audiences in the lead-up to the debates. Please use this in any way that you believe will excite people about learning more about the candidates and the issues.”
At least for a very small organization like we are, it's important to let the social media companies take the lead on how they can do that in the sphere they are present and thriving in.