Sara Ferne/The Lantern
Al Jazeera English, the third-largest English language international news network, came to Eddie George's Grill 27 Tuesday. The network hosted a panel of Ohio State students, who watched and discussed the second debate between Sens. Barack Obama and John McCain.
"Our audience is incredibly interested in the U.S. presidential election," said Mariam Simpson, the Al Jazeera English producer who coordinated the event in Columbus. "They want to hear what's on the minds of voters in this country as we approach election day."
The broadcast featured two panels of three students that represented the spectrum of political opinion on campus. An Obama supporter, a McCain supporter and a libertarian participated in the first panel. The second consisted of an Obama supporter, a McCain supporter and an undecided voter.
"It's as close to the views of the average American that you can get," said Mike Kirsch, the Al Jazeera English correspondent hosting the forum. "We're not listening to the pundits, but learning from the actual voters."
The panelists discussed the candidates and the issues live before and after the debate. The student panelists watched coverage of the debate in the VIP room of the bar and grill. The candidates, speaking from Belmont University in Nashville, Tenn., addressed questions from a live audience of voters in a town hall style debate. Although both candidates sought to win over voters from their opponent, the debate did not change the views of Al Jazeera's panel.
"I heard what I needed to hear," said J.D. Hamel, a senior in political science and philosophy, after the debate. A staunch McCain supporter, Hamel said the Arizona senator's "political courage" had earned him his support, but wished McCain would have "made more of a distinction (from Obama) on big picture, philosophical issues."
Brian Chorley, a graduate student in political science, agreed with Obama's points on reforming health care, which the Illinois senator described as a right, not a matter of personal responsibility.
Chorley had hoped, however, that Obama's foreign policy views would contrast more sharply with McCain's in the debate.
"He sounded like McCain. They sounded identical pretty much," Chorley said.
The panel's only undecided voter, Shivani Kakde, a senior in international studies, remained undecided at the end of the night.
"I thought it was politics as usual and the repetitive arguments of two years of campaigning and some flip-flopping for crowd-pleasing," Kakde said.
During their discussion of the debate, the panelists remained respectful of opposing viewpoints.
"I was very impressed with my fellow panelists," Chorley said. "They watched the debate and thought through the issues. Each one of them had good and bad things to say about both candidates."
Although the race is still close in the United States, most of Al Jazeera English's viewers already have their candidate picked.
A BBC poll of 22,000 people in 22 countries revealed Obama's support at 80 percent and McCain's at 20 percent. Other surveys conducted by The Economist, a British-based magazine, showed that Obama had more support over McCain in China, India and Indonesia by over 80 percent.
"There's been polls done internationally showing people want Obama because they want change from the last eight years," Al Jazeera correspondent Mike Kirsch said. "They blame this administration for some of the problems in the world today."
Al Jazeera has hosted similar panels in the Tampa, Fla. and Scranton, Pa. for the last two debates.
Wilson Dizard can be reached at dizard.5@osu.edu
Be the first to comment on this article!