Moderated by CNN’s Campbell Brown and Newsweek editor Jon Meacham, CNN will broadcast The Compassion Forum, featuring Senators Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama, this Sunday, April 13, at 8 pmET.
The 90-minute event, to be held at Messiah College in Grantham, Pennsylvania, will air nine days before the Pennsylvania primary. According to a CNN press release, it will feature “wide-ranging and probing discussions of policies related to pressing moral issues…including poverty, global AIDS, climate change and human rights.”
The candidates will not appear on-stage together, but rather interviewed separately by the moderators. A source involved in the planning of the event tells TVNewser that the two interviews will be about 40 minutes in length and run back-to-back, with the goal of gaining insight into each candidate’s personal reflections on faith and how faith impacts his/her views on current issues.
The forum is sponsored by Faith in Public Life, a Washington, DC-based organization whose own press release says that “Senator [John] McCain has thus far declined the invitation [to attend the forum], which is still open.”
Click continued for CNN’s release…
CNN to Air Live Broadcast of Presidential Candidates Forum on Faith Issues
CNN’s Campbell Brown to Co-Moderate with Newsweek’s Jon Meacham April 13 ‘Compassion Forum’
CNN will serve as the exclusive broadcaster of a presidential candidate forum on faith, values and other current issues at Messiah College near Harrisburg, Penn., on Sunday, April 13, at 8 p.m. (ET) CNN Election Center anchor Campbell Brown and Newsweek editor and Newsweek.com election anchor Jon Meacham will moderate what is being billed as The Compassion Forum, which will take place nine days before the Pennsylvania primary.
Organized and sponsored by Faith in Public Life, the 90-minute forum will consist of wide-ranging and probing discussions of policies related to pressing moral issues that are bridging ideological divides now more than ever, including poverty, global AIDS, climate change and human rights. It will feature Sens. Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama on the same stage to talk about these topics as each candidate sits down individually with the moderators. The program will also stream live at www.CNN.com.
Leading up to The Compassion Forum, chief national correspondent John King will anchor live special coverage beginning at 10 p.m. (ET) on Saturday, April 12, and then again on Sunday, April 13, immediately following the forum. Special coverage on Sunday will feature analysis from commentators across the faith and ideological spectrum. King will be stationed at CNN’s Pennsylvania “mini-bureau,” the CNN Election Express bus, which has allowed the network to maintain a full-time presence in these weeks leading up to the April 22 primary. “Ballot Bowl” will also originate live from Pennsylvania and air throughout the weekend, bringing the candidates’ significant events directly to viewers in long-form, not soundbites.