Monthly Archives: November 1999

By Pat Ford
Pew Center

A young man, all in black, with hair moussed into a wild halo wants to talk about homelessness. Another, neatly dressed in suit and tie, wants to talk about parking meters and how “they wait there till the meter is just about to expire so they can write you a ticket.”

Next, a couple peers into your TV screen, arms around each other, smiling sweetly. “Hi, I’m Ken Moore,” says the man. “And I’m Moira Moore,” says the woman. They look at each other. Ken beams back into the camera, “And we really want to have a baby.” Read more

Philadelphia Inquirer Gives Voters a Voice and WPVI-TV Gets a Debate Ratings Hit

By Pat Ford
Pew Center

Sidney Toombs had been preparing for this moment for months. It was May 8, the final televised debate of the hotly contested Democratic Mayoral Primary in Philadelphia.

All five candidates were there. Toombs and other voters taking part in The Philadelphia Inquirer’s “Citizen Voices” project would be asking the questions – not newspaper or television reporters.

Toombs and several hundred other people had been meeting since January to zero in on the issues they considered pressing, to frame those issues and, in a full day of discussion, to devise the questions they would put to the candidates. Read more