NEW YORK – CBS News, hosting vice presidential candidates JD Vance and Tim Walz for the general election campaign's third debate next week, says it will be up to the politicians — not the moderators — to check the facts of their opponents.
The 90-minute debate, scheduled for 9 p.m. Eastern on Tuesday in a Manhattan studio that once hosted the children's program “Captain Kangaroo,” will be moderated by the outgoing “CBS Evening News” anchor Norah O'Donnell and “Face the Nation” host Margaret Brennan.
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During ABC's debate between presidential contenders Kamala Harris and Donald Trump earlier this month, network moderators on four occasions pointed out inaccurate statements by Trump, and none by Harris. That infuriated the former president and his supporters, who complained it was unfair.
Last spring, CNN moderators did not question any facts presented by Trump and President Joe Biden in the debate where Biden's poor performance eventually led to him dropping out of the race.
On Friday, CBS said the onus will be on Vance and Walz to point out misstatements by the other, and that “the moderators will facilitate those opportunities” during rebuttal time. The network said its own misinformation unit, CBS News Confirmed, will provide real-time fact-checking during the debate on its live blog and on social media, and on the air during post-debate analysis.
With its plans, CBS News is clearly indicating it wants to take a step back from the heat generated by calling attention to misleading statements by candidates. Some argue that offstage fact-checking is too little, too late and not seen by many people who watch the event.
It's not the first time
Angie Drobnic Holan, director of the international fact-checking network at the Poynter Institute, said she has seen examples of moderators who have successfully encouraged candidates to keep their opponents honest.
“I'll be interested in seeing how this works in practice,” she said. "Having said that, you're basically off-loading one of your journalistic responsibilities onto the candidates themselves, so I don't think that it's ideal. It takes journalistic courage to be willing to fact-check the candidates, because the candidates are absolutely going to 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 statements on abortion, the 2020 election, crime statistics and reports that immigrants in Ohio were eating pets.
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 chance for genuine back-and-forth exchanges and the risk that the two men will talk over each other. CBS says it reserves the right to shut off 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 last word.
The stakes are high for CBS News
It's a big moment for CBS News, long mired in third place in the evening news ratings. O'Donnell just announced she was stepping down from the role. Brennan is considered a rising star.
Like with the presidential debates, CBS is making its feed available for other networks to televise, and many are expected to take advantage of the opportunity.
There will be no audience when Vance and Walz meet at a West Side studio that, in its past, has hosted editions of “60 Minutes,” “CBS Sunday Morning,” “Inside the NFL," “Geraldo” and “Captain Kangaroo.”
It's not known whether there will be other opportunities to see Trump and Harris together on the same stage before the Nov. 5 election. Harris has accepted an invitation from CNN for another debate on Oct. 23, but Trump has rejected it. In a poll taken by Quinnipiac University and released earlier this week, likely voters said by roughly a two-to-one margin that they'd like them face off again.
CBS' “60 Minutes” is looking to land both Harris and Trump for back-to-back interviews that will air on Oct. 7, but neither candidate has committed to it yet.
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David Bauder writes about media for the AP. Follow him at http://x.com/dbauder.