Vice presidential candidates JD Vance and Tim Walz are set to debate this Tuesday. Ahead of the Oct. 1 event, the broadcaster announced that moderators Norah O’Donnell and Margaret Brennan will not fact-check either candidate — Walz and Vance will be responsible for fact-checking one another. The news prompted political scientist Norman Ornstein to lament that though CBS was once “the gold standard for television news,” both “those days and their standards are long gone.”
Ornstein isn’t the only voice objecting to CBS’ announcement, with the condemnation of their choice widespread on social media after CNN previously declined to fact-check candidates during the debate between Joe Biden and Donald Trump earlier this year, followed by ABC opting to include brief fact-checks from moderators in the presidential debate between Trump and Kamala Harris.
According to CBS News’ editorial standards, the moderators are there to facilitate the conversation/debate between the candidates, as well as enforce the debate’s rules. However, they leave the responsibility to the candidates when it comes to fact-checking as part of the broadcast. CBS does plan to offer its own form of live fact-checking — but it will be online, rather than directly from the moderators, via its CBS News Confirmed Unit journalists in an online blog.
At this point, refusing to fact-check a debate is just a tacit admission that you want to help the GOP. After all, JD Vance is on record saying he has no problem lying and making up things if he thinks it’s politically advantageous. Tim Walz shouldn’t have to cut into his time correcting the lies of an established liar. Why have journalists involved at all? Seems like it’d be cheaper to hire some bozo off the street to read the questions and only enforce time limits on the Democrat. You don’t need Norah O’Donnell and Margaret Brennan to accomplish that.
Tim has come out guns blazing. I’d let him go head to head against Vance with no fact checks. I just wish they’d get rid of the moderators, though, if they aren’t going to moderate.
Just put a jar between them and they can pull a card if the discussion dies down.
JD would just end up putting the jar between some couch cushions…
Vance would just act like it was a filibuster and rant about nonsense and yell lies for an hour not allowing Tim to be heard, and call it a “power move.”. Idiots would think it showed he was strong, while ignoring the craziness of it all.
I feel like Walz will be able to call Vance on whatever bullshit he’s peddling… but not having a neutral fact checker is a terrible idea.
And also Walz doesn’t need to be wasting all of his allotted time fact checking an admitted liar. Not a ton of actual “News” in this article, but several of the referenced comments were funny/made good points like that.
Time concerns aside, this will just make GOP say “they have their own idea of truth”. Which is correct but the causality is vice versa.
Unless you are a partisan organization and want Trump to win.
Any attempt at fact checking will not be neutral. You can fact check obvious hyperbole, you can fact check because of slight misinterpretations, you can decide NOT to fact check. As soon as you decide to do it, you open the door for bias or accusations of bias.
Reality isn’t neutral, facts are objective. If there’s something that different stances on and both be personally correct then it’s an opinion.
Yes facts are objective, but when you decide to fact check or not fact check is completely subjective. Fact checking statements out of context can be misleading in themselves, and fact checking statements that were misinterpreted by the fact checkers is also influenced by bias.
CBS does plan to offer its own form of live fact-checking — but it will be online, rather than directly from the moderators, via its CBS News Confirmed Unit journalists in an online blog.
So the attention of the viewer is divided or they don’t even know that there is an online live fact check.
Sounds more than fishy
I vote for big true/false gauge behind them both. The needle swings as the speaker speaks. Maybe a flashing red light for insane lies and green for absolute truth.
But they would need real fact checkers voting on the truthfulness in real time to make it work.
Maybe their mic should get quieter each time they lie lol
This is actually a great compromise if they don’t wanna fact check em on air. Have the meter and the link on screen if anyone wants to go online to read the fact check.
I’d prefer it actually visible to the candidates.
They need to know that we know.
Lul would be amazing. I would love to see their reaction as the meter in front of them goes ham.
So they’re just going to let Vance fearmonger the country into a race war.
Cool. Cool cool cool.
He says she says. What a way to run a debate. Terrible idea!
This is a requirement of modern right-populist politics. They won’t play defense, so they just say crap and you’re always chasing the latest nonsense and never get to make a point.
Of course the counter to this is for Walz to make this a non-stop couch-fucking roast from minute one. I’m talking opening statement is about upholstery, fabric texture, visualize choices for lubricant and material combos. Just go all in on the furniture abuse right away.
<Walks walks onto stage and goes to shake Vance’s hand> “Hey, how was the tour of Ashely Furniture? Sorry I couldn’t join you… Did you find any attractive couches?”
“‘Test’ any out?”
I refuse to upvote any post woth the word “slammed” in the title
“Article title slammed by Feathercrown”
That really ripped me.
S L A M M E D
To slams, you say?
deleted by creator
Slamalamadingdong!
Come on and slam! And welcome to the jam!
I will say this debate is inherently riskier than the last one simply because JD Vance is already at his floor. He’s the most unpopular VP or VP candidate in history. Worse than Sarah Palin, worse than Spiro Agnew, worse than Aaron Burr.
He loses, nothing changes, he cannot go lower barring Mark Robinson tier revelations and even then I have doubts. He wins, Walz slips a point or two, Harris by extension maybe 1/4th of a point.Really anything that can stop the bleed for the Republicans is a win for them, October is critical. Harris rode a 6 week high after getting in at the end of July, spent the first two weeks undoing the pit Biden had dug, then got boosts from the VP pick and convention that lasted until early September. Trump finally had trends on his side and the debate utterly wrecked that. That’s finally fading again so they really are seeking a win, a screw up here could be too late to wait out and Vance getting some good press could bury stuff like the Uncle Robinson(no relation) disaster.
The other problem is that he’s young, really young, Teddy young. JD Vance is young enough he can fake it for a little bit in a way Trump is just too old to do these days. He’s baitable, but not to the level of Trump or even Biden in this environment. Young Narcissists can put on a face for a while in a controlled space like this, 80s Trump did it all the time and I’d argue Vance might be sharper than him.
I don’t think it’s a bad matchup, Walz is very wholesome and more experienced(and the reverse would be very unideal for the Democrats. Vance would be better at avoiding the massive tangents Harris baited Trump into, meanwhile Walz isn’t as high energy or effective on the pursuit against Trump as Harris is) , but he definitely ‘looks’ and ‘sounds’ older than he is, especially compared to Harris. So Walz is walking in with that already there.
A vanishingly small number of US voters are even going to watch this. There is wildcard baseball and a bunch of other crap happening at the exact same time.
Theres no point in watching it without fact checking and moderation, without those its just gonna be republican propaganda with occasional interjections by easily ignored sanity.
Try not to use “Slammed” in Article title challenge (Impossible)
Lambasted
We’re gonna have a proven liar on our network. We’re not going to do anything to point that out.
Truth is just an opinion. Whatever was said most eloquently and with more confidence was probably truer. There needn’t be any fact checking other than two people each saying a thing, the one who’s right will simply sound right to anyone, regardless of any pre-existing bias. /S
Fuck CBS
