Why do the presidential debates matter in the day of the Internet?

[richardhutnik]

Mr Khan said:

JoeTheBro said:
Of course it's important! Voting based off internet fact sheets is ridiculous when instead you could actually hear the candidate saying his policies. For example online it would say "Romney will cut PBS funding" making everyone think "oh that's bad". In the debate however we get a broader picture saying Romney loves PBS but it isn't worth crippling our future generations to pay for. At the same time debates show how passionate the candidates are on each issue. Again online it might say Obama wants to support clean energy but in a debate you can learn this is a key issue to him, not just one of hundreds.

PBS is 0.012% of the Federal Budget. It's like saying "I need to clean out my hard-drive" and deleting one .txt file

An issue is that the harddrive is full of a lot of these things.  There is a strong need to have discussion on priorities at this point, and decing what is worth it or not.  And the biggest items on the harddrive will get people thrown out of office if they decide to tweak.  Heck, look at the GOP trying to go after Obama regarding Medicare.  That is to score political points.  If you were to also bring in military spending, another large item, that ends up being another.