Presidential debate: Chris Wallace will not factually investigate Trump and Biden

Presidential debate: Chris Wallace will not factually investigate Trump and Biden

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“We do not expect Chris or other moderators to be fact-checkers,” Frank J. Fahrenkopf, Jr., co-chair of the Commission for Presidential Debates on Sunday, told CNN’s Brian Stelter, chief media correspondent. “Once the TV is off, there will be a lot of fact checkers.”
The topics for Tuesday’s debate, chosen by Wallace himself, include: Trump and Biden’s records, the Supreme Court, Covid-19, the economy, race and violence in our cities, and the integrity of the election.

If one of the candidates says something wrong on Tuesday, it is the job of the other candidate to arouse concern and in fact check directly, Fahrenkopf said.

Although fact checking seems essential to candidates’ strategies, it is not easy to achieve.

“Lying works on live television,” Mark Lukasiewicz, dean of the Lawrence Herbert School of Communication at Hofstra University, told Stelter. “Direct fact-checking is almost impossible and generally not terribly effective.”

But it is not the moderator’s job to intervene.

“The moderator is the facilitator,” said Fahrenkophf, Jr. “When we choose moderators, we make it very clear that there is a big difference between a moderator in a debate and a reporter with someone interviewing.”

The debate comes as the fulfillment of Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s place in the Supreme Court. Trump announced Judge Amy Coney Barrett as his choice until Saturday, sparking praise from many Conservatives and the setback of many Democrats.

On moderating the debate through a Fox News lens, Molly Jong-Fast, editor-in-chief of “Daily Beast”, said Wallace is the “real journalist at Fox”, referring to his experience in journalism and adding at that he was “from another world.”

“I think he’s going to feel uncomfortable pushing back,” Jong-Fast said.

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