Originally published at: CBS “moderators” abdicate role as journalists - Boing Boing
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More evidence that the corporate media are committed to this being a horserace between the duopoly parties. In their desperation to preserve an illusion of stability for Wall Street, they cannot admit that the GOP has been fully taken over by brazen and shameless liars and BSers.
If the worst happens in November (and beyond), outlets like CBS will bear a lot of the blame.
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Martha Raddatz was interviewing some Republican yesterday on one of the Sunday morning news shows, about the upcoming debate, and this guy nonchalantly said inflation was at 20%. And Raddatz said…nothing. 20% inflation and she keeps her mouth shut!
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Can’t go risking future access to some Republican!
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Oh yeah, letting the people in the debate fact check each other is such a great idea. /s
They absolutely know who they are helping with this and who they are debilitating. I hope Walz has a strategy to let it blow up in Vance’s face instead.
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You won’t get much access if they throw you in jail. Better start sucking up now! /s
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Cowards. Shame on them.
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About the best Walz, Harris, or any Dem can do in free-for-all debates like these is to use some of their time to say something like, “I urge voters to seek out the fact-checking articles in the news tomorrow, and you will see that almost everything my opponent says is misleading, disinformation, or just a flat-out lie. I will always strive to tell you the truth.”
Sarah Longwell, who moderates dozens of undecided voter focus groups, said after the last Harris-Trump debate that the participants liked that Trump was fact-checked in real time by the moderators. Viewers WANT this.
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Didn’t ABC promise not to fact-check as well? They still had to do some minimal debunking of obvious lies, in this post-Dominion-judgement world, to mitigate their own liability.
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ABC didn’t commit in advance to live fact-checking by the moderators, but they didn’t preclude it like CBS is doing. For whatever reason, probably legal risk mitigation, they decided to let Muir and Davis do their jobs.
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Well hopefully CBS is just telling them what they want to hear, despite being required to do some basic due diligence.
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The on-air talent takes the lead of the executives. If the suits are precluding it, the hosts won’t challenge Vance’s BS in realtime.
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Its kind of insane to me that in today’s parlance, simply correcting a blatant “error” with a, “police and local officials have said there’s no evidence of that happening,” or, “average gas prices right now are $x,” is considered fact-checking. It seems like what I think of as fact checking used to be mainly for checking the more weedy details or, prior to the internet, figures that weren’t easily available.
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Fact-checking?
Where’s the entertainment value in that?
Debates are so dull, so let’s have some fireworks & pump up those ratings!
-a CBS executive, probably
“It may not be good for America, but it’s damn good for CBS,”
-a CBS executive for real., re: Lord Dampnut’s candidacy in 2016.
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It is OUR responsibility to fact check. The debaters debate each other, not the moderators. It is not the moderators responsibility or duty to fact check.
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Not in this world. With the current candidates selected by the GOP and no fact-checking from the moderators, we end up with one side lying for the duration of the debate, and the other side doing nothing but trying to refute the lies and spending no time on their own positions. How does the electorate benefit from that?
So many people get their information from social media and fringe news sources, where facts are nearly non-existent. They shouldn’t get more of same from (mostly) reliable news networks, during the events with the most voter reach of the entire electoral season.
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Why the heck not? CBS doesn’t have a responsibility to host a debate in the first place, but if it does, why shouldn’t it take some responsibility for it? Is there a reason we want them to make the debate as misleading as possible to the audience, let Gish gallops and other dishonest techniques shine, and at this point even allow inciting hatred…when they could just not provide a platform for all that crap?
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Uh, welcome to BoingBoing ?
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If a (likely GOP) candidate tells a lie, it’s not “debating” for the moderator to take a moment to point out it has no basis in reality. That’s part of keeping the discussion on track rather than wasting everyone’s time with a de-rail meant to distract from the question at hand.
You’ll notice that liberals, progressives, and Democrats have no objection to the moderators doing this as part of their job. Conservatives and Republicans, however, do make your objection. Why do you think that is?
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So no fact checking. Will they also shut down candidates when their time is up or will they give the Republicans and only the Republicans virtually unlimited extra time like during the main presidential debate? In short, will there be a reason for them to even be in the room at all, or could someone just write their questions down on a stack of index cards?
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