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CBS News says it’s up to Vance and Walz to fact-check each other in an in-depth debate

CBS News says it’s up to Vance and Walz to fact-check each other in an in-depth debate

Vaseline 1 month ago

NEW YORK (AP) — CBS News, hosting vice presidential candidates J.D. Vance and Tim Walz for the third debate of the general election campaign next week, says it’s up to the politicians — not the moderators — to get the facts from their opponents to check.

The 90-minute debate, scheduled for Tuesday at 9 p.m. Eastern in a Manhattan studio that once hosted the children’s program “Captain Kangaroo,” will be moderated by outgoing “CBS Evening News” anchor Norah O’Donnell and “Face the Nation ‘. host Margaret Brennan.

During the ABC debate between presidential candidates Kamala Harris and Donald Trump earlier this month, network moderators on four occasions pointed out inaccurate statements from Trump, and none from Harris. That infuriated the former president and his supporters, who complained it was unfair.

Last spring, CNN moderators didn’t wonder all the facts presented by Trump and President Joe Biden in the debate in which Biden’s poor performance ultimately led to him fall out of the breed.

On Friday, CBS said the responsibility lies with Vance and Walz to point out incorrect statements by the other, and that “the moderators will facilitate those opportunities” during the rebuttal period. The network said its own disinformation unit, CBS News Confirmed, will provide real-time fact-checking on its live blog and on social media during the debate, and on air during post-debate analysis.

With the plans, CBS News clearly indicates that it wants to take a step back from the heat created by drawing attention to misleading statements by candidates. Some argue that off-stage fact checking is too little, too late and goes unnoticed by many people watching the event.

It’s not the first time

Angie Drobnic Holan, director of the Poynter Institute’s International Fact-Checking Network, said she has seen examples of moderators successfully encouraging candidates to keep their opponents honest.

“I’m curious to see how this works in practice,” she said. “That said, you are essentially transferring one of your journalistic responsibilities to the candidates themselves, so I don’t think that’s ideal. It takes journalistic courage to fact-check the candidates, because the candidates will definitely complain about it. I don’t think the moderators’ first goal is to avoid controversy.”

During the ABC debate, moderators David Muir and Linsey Davis corrected Trump’s statements on abortion, the 2020 election, crime statistics and reports that immigrants in Ohio pets eat.

Unlike the two presidential debates, the two sides agreed that the vice presidential candidates’ microphones will not be turned off while their opponent is speaking, increasing the likelihood of a true back-and-forth exchange and increasing the risk becomes the two men talking over each other. other. CBS says it reserves the right to disable a “hot mic” when necessary. Each candidate will have two minutes for a closing statement, with Vance winning a virtual coin toss and choosing to get the final say.

The stakes are high for CBS News

It’s a big moment for CBS News, which long ranked third in evening news ratings. O’Donnell just announced it she was resigning out of role. Brennan is considered a rising star.

As with the presidential debates, CBS is making its feed available for television on other networks, and many are expected to take advantage of this opportunity.

What you need to know about the 2024 election

There will be no audience when Vance and Walz meet at a West Side studio that has hosted past editions of “60 Minutes,” “CBS Sunday Morning,” “Inside the NFL,” “Geraldo” and “Captain Kangaroo.” . ”

It is not known if there will be other opportunities to see Trump and Harris on the same stage together before the November 5 election. Harris has accepted an invitation from CNN for another debate on October 23, but Trump rejected it. In a Quinnipiac University poll released earlier this week, voters likely said by a roughly two-to-one margin that they would like to face each other again.

CBS’ ’60 Minutes’ wants to bring in both Harris and Trump consecutive interviews that will be broadcast on October 7, but neither candidate has committed to it yet.

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David Bauder writes about media for the AP. Follow him up http://x.com/dbauder.