On September 12th, ABC is hosting the third Democratic Debate for the 2020 election cycle. This debate will feature 10 Democratic Presidential Candidates.

In the first and second debates, hosted by MSNBC and CNN respectively, there was a clear bias displayed by the news networks, giving more than ample speaking time to certain candidates, and hardly any time to others.

In the second debate (CNN), Joe Biden, who got the most speaking time in night two of both debates, spoke for a total of 21 minutes and 27 seconds, and Andrew Yang, who got the least speaking time, spoke for 8 minutes and 53 seconds. In the first debate (MSNBC), Biden spoke for 12 minutes and 53 seconds and Yang spoke for only 2 minutes and 50 seconds.

Media cannot, in good conscience, show clear biases in their coverage of something so important to the American people. This is not how the American people can stay informed, and this is not how democracy thrives.

Andrew Yang has been polling at 5th and 6th place, and yet debates give him less speaking time than anyone else, and certain media outlets still leave him out of graphics in favor of lower-polling candidates.

ABC, you have the chance to be the outlet that corrects this. Do not follow the path of CNN and MSNBC; do not show your own biases and interfere with the ability of the American people to make well informed decisions about the future of our country.

That said, what I propose to ensure that this debate does not go down the same route as it's predecessors is to add a fairly simple rule:

"All candidates' total speaking time by the end of the debate must be within two minutes of every other candidates' speaking time."

This, along with better enforcing speaking times for individual questions rather than letting certain candidates keep rambling on, will ensure that every candidate is asked a roughly equal number of questions and is given a roughly equal amount of speaking time.

Another proposal:

Don't ask questions that encourage candidates to attack each other. We need to hear policy, not petty fighting. This is a serious matter and deserves to be treated as such. The American people do not need our time wasted by meaningless bickering when much more productive conversations could be happening.

The ability of a Democracy to function as intended and to thrive depends on how well the general population can be informed, and media has no place in inhibiting that ability. Do not be another biased media network getting in the way of we the people finding out what is truly best for us. Do not push for certain candidates while censoring others. Give them equal speaking time and encourage civility. A fair, unbiased, and civil debate is necessary for the well-being of this country.