WASHINGTON — The four traditional presidential and vice presidential debates this fall will be absent some of the new-media wrinkles of the primary debates, but they may be more free-flowing than those of previous elections.

Frank Fahrenkopf and Paul Kirk, co-chairmen of the Commission on Presidential Debates, said yesterday they will avoid the "gimmickry infotainment" aspects of some primary debates, like the video question on global warming posed by a fake snowman in a CNN-YouTube Democratic debate last July.

The 2008 format outlined yesterday will have a single moderator overseeing 10-minute segments devoted to specific issues. Candidates will be able to question one another. Questions will be solicited online, Kirk and Fahrenkopf said, but the moderator will choose which get asked.

One debate will be in the town-hall format the commission has used since 1992. In the other three, the commission plans to have candidates and moderators seated behind desks.

Fahrenkopf, former chairman of the Republican National Committee, and Kirk, former chairman of the Democratic National Committee, also said they're exploring ways to eliminate — or "outsource" to the campaigns themselves — the post-debate spin rooms in which surrogates roam among journalists to argue that their side won the debate. "Spin alley" has increasingly taken on a circuslike atmosphere.

Kirk called them "a joke."

The nonprofit commission, funded by corporations, has staged presidential and vice presidential debates since 1988.

He and Kirk said the moderators will be experienced broadcast journalists chosen by the commission. The debates will be spread over 19 days beginning Sept. 26 at the University of Mississippi.