Fox's Chris Stirewalt: Sammon Is “The Best” At “Crafting The Questions.” Asked by Fox host Howard Kurtz how he and the debate moderators would formulate questions to keep candidates off their talking points, Fox News digital politics editor Chris Stirewalt said they have a “secret weapon” in Sammon, “who is the best at not only team cohesion and keeping everybody on point about what the point is, but in crafting the questions.” From the August 2 edition of #MediaBuzz:
KURTZ: You've been to this rodeo before. How do you and Megyn Kelly and Bret Baier and Chris Wallace go about formulating your questions knowing the candidates are going to try to pivot to their talking points?
STIREWALT: Well, the first thing is we have a secret weapon and that is Bill Sammon, who is the best at not only team cohesion and keeping everybody on point about what the point is, but in crafting the questions.
KURTZ: Washington bureau chief.
STIREWALT: Absolutely, he's a managing editor and a great mind and a great journalist and so that is a big help. [Fox News, #MediaBuzz, 8/2/15]
Sammon Meeting With Moderators Regularly To Refine Questions. Sammon is meeting with the three moderators in regular “murder board” sessions where questions are refined. From a Washington Post profile of Fox's Chris Wallace, one of the moderators:
On a recent Thursday morning, Wallace walked the few steps from his small, memorabilia-filled office — a photo of him playing hoops with Michael Jordan, his late father's Rolodex — to the more spacious suite of his boss, Bill Sammon, the vice president of news, who had called together a small debate-prep meeting.
“It's insane interest,” Sammon said as Wallace took a seat. Sammon was fielding calls from campaigns that wanted him to walk them through the debate rules, while also trying to finalize the program. Sammon is against opening statements. Ten statements from 10 candidates would be a buzzkill, he argued. Wallace nodded.
“I talked with Bret. He's written 54 questions,” said Sammon.
“I've written 22,” said Wallace.
Twenty-two is about as many as each moderator will have time to ask. With 10 candidates — each vying for a knockout moment — the anchors will have to keep their questions precise and their eyes on the clock.
“We'll have murder board Monday,” Sammon said. “Another Wednesday and Friday. The week of the debate, every day; and two a day if we need to.”
Murder boards, in Fox parlance, are sessions where each moderator's questions are refined — pared if they are too long, scuttled if they are too “weedy.” Sammon, Wallace, Kelly and Baier will harshly criticize each other’s work. [The Washington Post, 8/3/15, emphasis added]
[Fox News, #MediaBuzz, 8/2/15]