Facts Need To Be Checked

So what’s going on with CBS News?

Credit: Getty Images

With our democracy being tested in unimagined ways, we are just over a month away from one of the most important presidential elections in U.S. history. The only chance for voters to see the vice presidential candidates together is tomorrow night in a “debate” being hosted by CBS News.

There are few guarantees in life, but odds are that more than one lie will be told by Donald Trump’s protege and running mate, JD Vance.

If there’s one thing Vance has learned from Trump, it’s that lying to get ahead is OK. If you get caught, just double down and lie some more. Who’s going to fact check you? Well, apparently not CBS News.

Please allow me to pause here and say that I am always reluctant to criticize CBS News. I spent 45 years there. Loved every minute of it, even the worst times. I still pull for the important institution that it is, and for the many good people who work there.

With that as background, it is necessary to report and comment on the fact that CBS News has decided not to fact-check the candidates in real time. I would love to know what went into this decision, because it feels spineless, especially after ABC’s Linsey Davis and David Muir effectively and correctly fact-checked Trump during the debate with Kamala Harris.

Did you know that in the history of televised presidential debates, no candidate had been fact-checked in real time?

Did Trump complain after the debate? You bet. But remember, the complainer-in-chief has elevated lying to an Olympic sport. He got called out for his made-up yarn about Haitian immigrants dining on dogs and cats. Remember where Trump first heard the fictitious tale — from none other than JD Vance.

Vice presidential debates are a fairly new event in American politics. The first ever vice presidential debate was held in 1976, when Senators Walter Mondale and Bob Dole faced off.

Historically, VP debates don’t hold much sway with voters. They are watched by fewer people and tend to make less news. But there have been outliers. The 2008 match-up between Senator Joe Biden and Governor Sarah Palin drew 70 million viewers, more than most presidential debates. This was because Palin, a first-term governor from Alaska, was almost a complete unknown.

Because this year is the outlier of outliers, tomorrow night’s debate has the potential to make a difference for some voters.

Not only will this be the only vice presidential debate, but it will likely be the last joint appearance by the two campaigns, since Trump says he will not debate Harris again. She has challenged him to a second debate. He has refused.

Neither Minnesota Governor Tim Walz nor JD Vance is well-known to voters. Before Walz was chosen by Harris, most Americans had never heard of him. Because Vance is a bestselling author, he has better name recognition, but he has been a senator for only two years. Many viewers will tune in to learn more about the two men who could be one heartbeat away from the presidency.

The rules for tomorrow night’s 90-minute, audience-free debate are fairly standard. Each candidate will have two minutes to answer a question, and his opponent will have two minutes to respond. The candidates will be standing behind podiums. They will not be allowed notes or props. Both mics will stay on throughout the debate, though CBS has the right to turn off a mic.

According to CBS News’ editorial standards, moderators Norah O’Donnell, anchor of the “CBS Evening News,” and Margaret Brennan, host of “Face the Nation,” are there to ask questions and enforce the rules. They are not fact-checkers. CBS says it is up to the candidates to fact-check, though “the moderators will facilitate those opportunities” during rebuttal time. While both fact-checking (ABC during the Harris-Trump debate) and not fact-checking (CNN during the Biden-Trump debate) have drawn criticism this year, for the most part, the criticism was unsurprisingly partisan.

CBS is not abdicating completely. In a live blog and on social media, CBS News’ misinformation unit will provide real-time fact-checking. So, the audience is expected to watch the debate and simultaneously monitor a blog?

Simply put, this “rule,” imposed by CBS, incentivizes lying. It invites the participants to bend the truth, since their opponent then has to spend his rebuttal time calling out the lie, rather than giving an opposing view. And the calling out of a lie by an opponent rather than an impartial moderator is less credible.

Angie Drobnic Holan, the director of the International Fact-Checking Network at the Poynter Institute, told the Associated Press, “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.”

Norm Ornstein, a political scientist with whom I spent many an election night at CBS News, had nothing nice to say about his former employer on X. “I spent 30 years as an election analyst for CBS. It was the gold standard for television news. Those days, and their standards, are long gone.”

It seems clear that CBS is trying to avoid the blowback ABC got after the presidential debate. A journalist, much less a news organization, should not be afraid to take heat. Their responsibility is to call out lies. If they don’t do that on live television, during the most consequential election in modern history, they are the lesser for it. But the biggest loser is the American electorate.

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Stay Steady,
Dan