Just going over some notations that I made as a result of being among an estimated ten million American viewers of a 1976 presidential debate between then-incumbent president Gerald Ford and former Governor Jimmy Carter, when an audio failure of 27 minutes duration occurred in the middle of a statement Jimmy Carter was making about the 'intelligence community' and 'the C.I.A.'. I made notes on this as it happened and just retrieved them this evening.

When I entered in Google and retrieved the following url, I was astonished to see a documentary record of the event, aforedescribed:
http://www.pbs.org/newshour/debatingour ... dcast.html

GOVERNOR CARTER: Well, one of the very serious things that's happened in our government in recent years and has continued up until now is a breakdown in the trust among our people in the - [audio failure]

JIM LEHRER: It took the candidates a few moments to realize they weren't being heard by the television audience. On ABC, there wasn't much for anchorman Harry Reasoner could say either.

HARRY REASONER, ABC Anchor: At the moment all we can do is watch this interesting development with the President of the United States who also happens to be a candidate for the presidency of the United States and a former governor of Georgia who is the other major candidate for the presidency doing what we are doing which is waiting for something to happen.

JIM LEHRER: Everyone in America who was watching, you know, was very - couldn't figure out - this was unreal. What was it like standing there?

PRESIDENT CARTER: I watched that tape afterwards and it was embarrassing to me that both President Ford and I stood there almost like robots. We didn't move around, we didn't walk over and shake hands with each other. We just stood there.

PRESIDENT FORD: I suspect both of us would have liked to sit down and relax while the technicians were fixing the system, but I think both of us were hesitant to make any gesture that might look like we weren't physically or mentally able to handle a problem like this.

JIM LEHRER: The delay continued for 27 minutes before the technicians were able to trace the problem to a blown transformer and replace it.

PRESIDENT CARTER: So I don't know who was more ill at ease, me or President Ford.

JIM LEHRER: It looked like a tie to me.

PRESIDENT CARTER: It was a tie. Neither one of us was at ease, there's no doubt about that. Those events, I think, to some degree let the American public size up the candidates, and I don't think either one of us made any points on that deal.
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Audio failure during 1976 presidential debate, continued:

Then I entered in Google: "Ford-Carter debate: technical difficulties": yielded a series of documentary video recordings confirming the typographical record presented in the above description of ABC Anchor, Harry Reasoner and Jim Lehrer en conversant with then President Jimmy Carter about the described audio blank-out incident. The Google entry of 'Ford-Carter debate: technical difficulties', features several video documentaries of the debate itself, including the moment the sound failed while former Governor Carter was speaking (of the American people's 'breakdown in trust'...)

There is an awkward moment on the part of the commentator, who then ad libs what amounts to a hurriedly improvised non-sequitur:
"This is not a conspiracy against President Ford or Governor Carter... You needn't change channels to hear what's being said, because the audio has been discontinued everywhere".

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DrP5ZM0otP8

Notably, President Ford had, a few moments earlier, pointed out that C.I.A. Director George Bush was doing his job well, 'under executive supervision'...
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Is this proof of a conspiracy? Well. Not exactly. But it sure as heck is due cause - factual basis - for solemn suspicion.