NBC10 cancels mayoral debate over 'unreasonable demands' by Kenney campaign

A plan for a televised debate on NBC10 between Democratic mayoral candidate Jim Kenney and Republican Melissa Murray Bailey has been scuttled because of "unreasonable demands" from the Kenney campaign, according to the television station's vice president of news.

The campaign had submitted a six-page "memorandum of understanding" to the station, containing more than 60 prerequisites for the debate. The document dictated everything from camerawork, the number and size of dressing rooms each campaign would be assigned, and how many bottles of water each candidate would receive (two, for the record).

The Kenney campaign said that the document was intended to keep focus on "the issues" and that other television stations had agreed to the requirements. Both campaigns had signed off on the agreement.

However, in emails obtained by Philly.com, Anzio Williams, NBC10 vice president of news, argues that the memorandum was so controlling that agreeing to it "jeopardizes the integrity of the debate and the standards of the journalistic organizations participating."

NBC10 station managers notified both campaigns that, in their view, the demands were excessive, citing a specific restriction on camerawork at the debate — that there would be no "cut-aways" to reactions of a candidate while an opposing candidate was answering a question.

After two weeks of fruitless negotiations, Williams, in an email, told both campaigns that the station would be withdrawing "due to demands of the Kenney Campaign."

In the same email chain, Kenney spokesperson Lauren Hitt argued that the campaign wasn't trying to "forbid" reaction shots, but that NBC10 had refused to compromise on the use of a "split-screen close-up shot that [the Kenney campaign] felt placed theatrics ahead of substance."

Hitt said by phone Wednesday that the purpose of the memorandum of understanding was to set standards for general election debates after a hodgepodge schedule of candidate events during the Democratic primary that "ranged in quality and format."

She said the campaign had a problem with a single camera angle and not the idea of showing candidates' reactions to each other's responses.

"We gave NBC10 the better part of two weeks to come up for some alternatives," Hitt said of the camera angle demands. "Another TV station that has higher ratings than NBC10 had no problem with our [memorandum]."

She said the campaign also discussed the MOU's demands with other television executives and none of them saw it as a deal breaker.

"NBC10 never had a real excuse other than it made for more interesting TV," Hitt said.

However, a source at NBC10 said the entirety of document was both unusual and unacceptable.

The source said that they "had never seen anything" like the agreement during more than a dozen recent political debates the station has hosted — while less formal agreements over length and format of debate were not unheard of, ceding control over editing and camerawork crossed a line.