infobong.com

Wikipedia has an amusing entry on a high school competition called "Public Forum Debate," which is sometimes known as "Ted Turner Debate." In the contest, teams of two role-play a TV debate show like the now-cancelled "Crossfire." Apparently the format is more informal than Cross-Examination debate contests. Between each round of speeches, there is a "Crossfire" round where debaters have three minutes to ask the opposing team questions. The article does not mention if judges interrupt to tell them, "You're hurting America."

At first I thought it was interesting how media has influenced a stodgy institution like high-school debate, but I remembered that another debate format, Lincoln-Douglas, was inspired by the famous debates published in newspapers. Although it might not be the first debate contest inspired by media, it's interesting that it is known through media referents and, presumably, it began while "Crossfire" was still on the air.