The Island of Doubt

For reasons unknown to this observer, Tim Russert has in some parts a reputation as a serious journalist. Last night's Democratic presidential debate should put that notion to rest. Russert asked Dennis Kucinich to verify a passage from a new book by reincarnation nut-case Shirley MacLaine in which he is said to have seen a UFO, and then put the question of extraterrestrial life to Barack Obama. What the frak?

Both answers -- Kucinich: "I did ... it was unidentified" and Obama: I don't know" -- were the only possible reasonable responses. The problem with Russert's questions is not that they're inappropriate questions to ask a presidential candidate, but that they're inappropriate questions to ask candidates taking part in a debate.

Debate questions should allow for a variety of reasonable responses. They should be amenable to debate. Whether one candidate saw something he was unable to identify is only for that candidate to answer. It allows for no challenge or contrary interpretation. Considering there is as yet no evidence of the existence of life elsewhere in the universe, what else is there to say but "I don't know"?

If he has any interest in science-oriented issues, surely Russert could have thought of alternative questions that could have led to a genuine exchange of ideas. Like maybe, how aggressive should our climate-change mitigation strategies be?

Russert even led into his question on UFOs with "This is a serious question," which, of course, should have alerted us to the absurdity of what was to come. We'll know better next time to switch to the SciFi channel, where at least we won't be disappointed with the intellectual content of the dialog.