On Tuesday, the Grand Rapids Press ran a brief one-paragraph announcement in its "In Brief" section reporting that sites and dates have been chosen for the 2008 presidential debates. According to the article and a press release from the Commission on Presidential Debates, presidential debates will be held at the University of Mississippi on September 26, Belmont University in Tennessee, and Hofstra University in New York. Additionally, a vice presidential debate will be held at Washington University in Missouri.

The Grand Rapids Press--like most newspapers and media outlets that announced the debates--failed to explore the larger question of who sets up the debates. Since 2000, while the Press has run a few articles from wire services and other papers that talk about the debate process, there has been no substantive exploration of the process. Each presidential election year, the debates are setup by an organization called the Commission on Presidential Debates (CPD) which was formed in 1987. The Republican National Committee and the Democratic National Committee formed the CPD "to implement joint sponsorship of general election presidential and vice presidential debates" and since forming has hosted all of the presidential debates. Before the 1998 elections, the League of Women Voters organized presidential debates.

While the CPD gives the appearance of being "non-partisan," it is in reality a bipartisan organization that gives the two major political parties in the United States control over the presidential debates. Many of the key aspects of the debates, from moderators to the participation of third party candidates, are decided behind closed doors by with no transparency. Each year, the two major party candidates agree on secretly negotiated "Memoranda of Understanding" that outline every detail of the debates. These agreements are then given to the CPD who dutifully implements them. This tactic was first used in 1988, when representatives of the Bush and Dukakis campaigns submitted a "Memoranda of Understanding" to the League of Women Voters and the then recently formed Commission on Presidential Debates. The League of Women Voters ultimately withdrew its sponsorship in 1988 because the demands made by the two presidential candidates' campaigns would have required the League to "help perpetrate a fraud."

By virtue of it being essentially a vehicle of the Democratic and Republican parties, the CPD has also aided the two major political parties in excluding third party candidates. A 2004 report titled "Deterring Democracy: How the Commission on Presidential Debates Undermines Democracy" shows that the CPD has a history of excluding candidates outside of the two major political parties by either allowing the two major party candidates to decide which--if any--third party candidates are allowed to participate or by setting artificially high thresholds for participation. In 2008, third-party candidates once again will be required to be on enough state ballots to have "a mathematical chance of securing an Electoral College majority" and be polling at least 15% in national polls by five polling organizations. The 15% threshold is difficult for third parties that are often excluded from the media and

Beyond Fahrenkopf and Kirk, the CPD's board of directors consists of nine individuals who have varying connections to partisan politics, corporations, and elite segments of society. The individuals on the CPD's board include:

Howard Buffett is the son of billionaire investor Warren Buffett. Buffett is on the boards of Berkshire Hathaway, ConAgra Foods, Lindsay Manufacturing, and Sloan Implement Company and has previously been on the boards of Archer Daniel Midland and Coca-Cola.

John C. Danforth is a former Republican Senator from Missouri. He has a long history in Missouri's politics and has served as U.S. Special Envoy to Sudan and U.S. Permanent Representative to the United Nations. Danforth is a partner at Bryan Cave.

Antonia Hernandez is the president of the California Community Foundation. She has been a past president of the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund. She is a trustee at the Rockefeller Foundation and is on the board of Golden West Financial Corporation.

Caroline Kennedy is the daughter of John F. Kennedy. She is a director of the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund and an advisor to the Harvard Institute of Politics.

Michael McCurry is a former Clinton administration official who has three decades of experience in Washington DC including press secretary to President Bill Clinton, spokesperson for the Department of State, and director of communications for the Democratic National Committee. He has worked on various Democratic campaigns. He is currently a partner at Public Strategies Washington and is on the boards of a variety of entities ranging from the Center for International Private Enterprise to the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs at Princeton University. McCurry has been involved in campaigning against "net neutrality."

Newton N. Minow is a former Federal Communications Commission (FCC) member who has been active in Democratic Party politics. He is a Senior Counsel in the law firm Sidley Austin LLP and has been on the corporate boards of Foote, Cone & Belding Communications, Tribune Co., Manpower, Inc., CBS, and Sara Lee Corporation. He has also been on the RAND board and is a life trustee at both Northwestern University and the University of Notre Dame.

Dorothy Ridings is the president and CEO of the Council on Foundations. In the past, she was publisher of Knight-Ridder's Bradenton Herald and served on the boards of the League of Women Voters, the Ford Foundation, and the Benton Foundation.

Alan K. Simpson is a former Republican Senator. He was recently one of the contributors to the Iraq Study Group report and is on the board of Common Good, a tort reform group. He has been on the corporate boards of American Express Funds, Biogen, and PacifiCorp.

H. Patrick Swygert is the president of Howard University. In addition, Swygert is on the boards of Fannie Mae, United Technologies, and the Hartford Financial Services Group. He is also on the Central Intelligence Agency External Advisory Board.

Aside from the corporate interests represented by the CPD's chairmen and its Advisory Board, the CPD as an entity is sponsored by corporations. The debates have been sponsored by a host of corporations including Anheuser-Busch, Sprint, and AT&T. At times corporate sponsorship has brought direct benefits to the corporations, such as a 1992 contribution from Philip Morris that allowed the company to hang a large banner that was visible during post-debate interviews or Anheuser-Busch being allowed to setup information booths on the floor of the debate in 2000. Moreover, corporations donating to the CPD also are essentially donating to both parties at the same time.

Unfortunately, the Commission on Presidential Debates has received little scrutiny in the corporate media and instead journalists have participated in the debates without asking larger questions about who is allowed to participate, who plans the debates, and who funds them. In recent years, the CPD has been challenged by Ralph Nader who was even denied access to the debates as an attendee in 2000. In 2004, Nader joined with other third party candidates to file a suit calling on the Federal Elections Commission (FEC) to decertify the CPD. In addition, activists with the Open Debates organization have charged that the CPD violates FEC and IRS rules. This argument centers on the "Memoranda of Understanding" submitted by the Democratic and Republican Party candidates and implemented by the CPD. By accepting these rules, the group charges that the CPD is violating IRS codes by the fact that it "participates" or "intervenes" on behalf of major party candidates, while it violates FEC rules by allowing corporate contributions and excluding candidates. These challenges are still being litigated.