CBS Debate: If you're not going to fact check, why have journalists moderate at all?

[Dennis Donovan]

Mueller, She Wrote
I don’t get this at all. If you’re not going to fact check, why have journalists moderate at all? Do they not know the facts? Is that what we’re talking about here?

Jo
Can someone please explain to me why CBS News is using journalists to ask the questions at the VP debate if they’re going to accept lies for answers?

2:35 PM · Sep 29, 2024

A really good question! 🤔

Link to tweet

[senseandsensibility]

1. I've been saying this for months now

And it is not fair or reasonable to expect the Dem nominee to do their job of debating and the journalists' job at the same time. I have no patience for people who can't or won't see this.

[spanone]

2. K&R

ABC said they wouldn't fact check and ended up doing quite a bit...maybe CBS will do the same?

[hlthe2b]

3. Good question...

[TwilightZone]

4. Politicians have been lying in debates as long as there have been debates.

Why did we bother with them before?

I get that people want Vance and Trump called out on their lies, but declining to do so is nothing new, and I guess I really don't understand why many think it's the end of the world if it doesn't happen. Fact-checking mid-debate runs the risk of giving the liar more time, which is what happened in the Harris/Trump debate*.

Besides, Harris calling him out was considerably more effective than the moderators doing so.

*https://www.cnn.com/2024/09/10/politics/speaking-times-harris-trump-debate-dg/index.html

[druidity33]

6. Bring back the League of Women Voters!

They used to host the debates and guess what? They were better then.

https://www.lwv.org/newsroom/press-releases/league-women-voters-statement-presidential-debates

from Wiki:

The LWV sponsored the United States presidential debates in 1976, 1980 and 1984.[60][61] On October 2, 1988, the LWV's 14 trustees voted unanimously to pull out of the debates, and on October 3 they issued a press release condemning the demands of the major candidates' campaigns. LWV President Nancy Neuman said that the debate format would "perpetrate a fraud on the American voter" and that the organization did not intend to "become an accessory to the hoodwinking of the American public."[62][63] All presidential debates from 1988 until 2020 were sponsored by the Commission on Presidential Debates,[64] a bipartisan organization run by the two major parties that some argue has established rules with the intent to exclude airing candidates associated with other parties.[65]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/League_of_Women_Voters

[SWBTATTReg]

5. A debate, a proper one, needs to have some rules, e.g., how much time can a candidate take to answer a question, etc.,

etc., etc.

Otherwise, the debate isn't a true debate and it's just one old man ranting and raving, uncontrollably, at Kamala.

I want to have some decorum, so more than one question is asked, and that one person single-handedly hogs all of the time. That's why they have moderators.

As though djt needs to be reminded of this well-known fact of debating.

But, of course, djt didn't really go to school, he claims that he did, but you really wonder, after listening to how stupid he really is, from just the few minutes we see him on TV and all of the numerous people that we've seen come out, call him stupid or a moron too.

[Rhiannon12866]

7. This makes no sense at all, given that the moderators will be asking the questions

I can't speak for Norah O'Donnell, never figured out why she was promoted, but Margaret Brennan is very good, she asks tough questions and follows them up with those she interviews on "Face the Nation."

[ecstatic]

8. If candidates have to spend the entire evening fact checking

a known liar, how are they supposed to get out their own message?