Mysterious inturruption during 1976 Pres. Debates?

Great Debates
1

Why did the audio go out at the first presidential debate in 1976 when Jimmy Carter started talking about National Security and the public’s unease?

Occam’s Razor. Would you continue with what you knew if the audio went suddenly out on a nationally broadcast presidential debate?

Bonus question… Has anyone investigated this incident?

http://www.pbs.org/newshour/debatin...ebates/1_d.html

Here’s the text from the transcript…

[…]
MR. FORD: You are familiar, of course, with the fact that I am the first president in thirty years who has reorganized the intelligence agencies in the federal government: the CIA, the Defense Intelligence Agency, the National Security Agency and the others. We’ve done that by executive order and I think - we’ve tightened it up; we’ve - straightened out their problems that developed over the last few years. It doesn’t seem to me that it’s needed or necessary to have legislation in this particular regard. I have recommended to the Congress, however - I’m sure you’re familiar with this - legislation that would make it very proper in - in the right way, that the attorney general could go in and get the right for wiretapping under security cases. This was an effort that was made by the attorney general and myself, working with the Congress. But even in this area, where I think new legislation would be justified, the Congress has not responded. So, I feel in that case, as well as in the reorganization of the intelligence agencies, as I’ve done, we have to do it by executive order. And I’m glad that we have a good director in George Bush. We have good executive orders, and the CIA and the DIA and NASA - - NSA are now doing a good job under proper supervision.

MR. NEWMAN: Governor Carter.

MR. CARTER: Well, one of the very serious things that’s happened in our government in recent years, and has continued up until now, is a breakdown in the trust among our people in the –

[twenty-seven-minute delay]

MR. NEWMAN: failure in the broadcasting of the debate, it occurred twenty-seven minutes ago. The fault has been dealt with and - we want to thank President Ford and Governor Carter for being so patient and understanding while this delay went on. We very much regret the technical failure that lost the sound as it - as it was leaving this theater. It occurred during Governor Carter’s response to what would have been and what was the last question put to the candidates. That question went to President Ford. It dealt with the control of government intelligence agencies. Governor Carter was making that response and had very nearly finished it. He will conclude his response now after which - President Ford and Governor Carter will make their closing statements. Governor.

MR. CARTER: There has been too much government secrecy and not - not enough respect for the personal privacy of American citizens.

[…]

2

This is a continuation of the closed GQ thread http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=140139

EVERYBODY: You obviously assume that Jimmy Carter was about to blow the lid of of some secret stuff about the CIA spying on the American People. MY question for you is, how did Jimmy Carter find out about it? Who told him? What did they tell him? And you also seem to think that the mere act of cutting off the broadcast would have scared Carter into not continuing with his “supposed” expose. Am I right so far?

Any answers, since you are the one proposing this fairly far-fetched idea?

3

Occam’s razor? You’re joking, right?

Occam’s razor cuts the head off of your argument. Which theory involves a greater multiplication of entities? That they had a problem with the sound, or that Jimmy Carter, spilled some deep dark truth about the trilateral commission taking over the world (or whatever) and that not a single person in a room full of people has stepped forward in the last 26 years to spill the beans – not to mention the fact that Carter subsequently became President of the U.S. and could have revealed anything he wanted to, including the presence of aliens in Area 51 and the evil U.N. plot to rig bingo games in support of International Communism. Of course, we have no idea as to how candidate Carter stumbled on this amazing secret in the first place.

So Everybody, which theory do you think is simpler?

4

Easy to explain. The Carter Robot broke down, and it took twenty-seven minutes to get the spare out of the crate!

5

Yes Occam’s Razor. I didn’t bring up any dark deep conspiracy theorys, YOU did.

6

Goodness, you’re not joking.

Everybody
Please explain Occam’s razor and its implications for your OP.

And don’t tells us to look it up. Bill was a close personal friend of many of the posters here.

7

Occam’s Razor: The simplest explanation tends to be the right one.

8

Why did the audio go out at that sensitive moment? I see that it WAS a sensitive moment by the boogyman’s cheerleaders who put him up on their shoulders so quickly!

Who could pull the plug? Who could lose the most with a <<perceived>> revelation of their transgressions?

Who was singled out by name by the OTHER candidate just before the allegation started?

I don’t care if Einstein was your uncle. What other explanation would most fit such a timely outage? Wouldn’t the broadcast industry’s best technicians be assigned to this? Would they let somebody walk around and trip over a cable? What outage would take 27 minutes to correct?

A closed mind gathers no facts!

9

ROFL!

EVERBODY, I knew Bill Occam. Bill Occam was a friend of mine. And EVERBODY, you’re no… bxxxxxt. click. snap. Bxxxxt. We control the horizontal; we control the vertical. Please do not adjust your set…

10

**
You wouldn’t have an owl exploding in your life by any chance, would you?

** I have no idea what you are trying to say here.

**
Any number, I’d suppose. Most likely, a piece of equipment blew out and had to be replaced. Let me turn the question around. If they only wanted to stop Carter from answering a question, why was it necessary to kill the sound for 27 minutes, especially since the video remained on and Carter and Ford remained on camera for the entire time. I’d think 27 second would have been more than sufficient.

Once again, please explain why you feel that Occam’s razor validates your theory.

**
Not a problem. So far, you’ve provided pretty slim pickings.

11

Note: Occam’s razor IS NOT a way to evaluate whether any one story is correct. It’s commonly mispreceived ways.

It’s a philosophy to use as to not create extraneous details in a given proposals, but it does not suggest that the simplest analysis is always the correct one when analyzing things.

12

Er, it’s commonly misperceived that way.

13

Time for another logic lesson, Senorbeef?

**
Cite?

Here’s mine.

**

http://www.wikipedia.org/wiki/Occam%27s_Razor

In this context, Occam’s razor says that, if you have two theories that each explain the available data, choose the simpler one. So I repeat, what’s simpler, that a mechanical failure caused the sound system to fail or that government agents (or marauding 200 meter space aliens) conspired to silence Carter (who went on to become the president) and memory-wipe all the technicians, journalists campaign staff, etc who were in the audience?

14

Blalron wrote:

“Entia non sunt multiplicanda praeter necessitatum.” — William of Ockham

(Do not multiply entities beyond necessity.)

The popular paraphrase, “The simplest explanation tends to be the right one” is a sad travesty of Ockham’s Razor, effectively ruining his whole point. The simplest explanation might eliminate an entity that is necessary but leads to a more complex explanation.

15

Well, it’s implicit in the use of the word “explanation” that one must choose a thoery which actually explains things. However, I agree that it would be better if people knew the actual original formulation of “Big” Bill’s reasoning, and why he arrived at it.

If you want to see a sad travesty, look at the OP’s use of the phrase in question.

16

What does this mean? :confused:

17

Whooooooo could pull the plug?

Whooooooo was singled out by name?

Whooooooo wrote the book of love?

Whooooooo put the bop in the bop she-bop she-bop?

18

Three words: Hilary Rodham Clinton. 'Nuff Sed.

19

Hillary Rodham Clinton single-handedly disabled the audio for 27 minutes during the 1976 presidential debate?!? :eek:

20

Hell, yes. She picked up a degree in electrical engineering while defending the Black Panthers.