Citizen Voices (The Philadelphia Inquirer and WPVI-TV)
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.