The presidential debates for the 2020 election kick off Tuesday in Cleveland, and many Americans are uncertain about what to expect. One thing is for sure: Fox News Sunday anchor and moderator Chris Wallace will not be tasked with fact-checking the candidates in real-time.
“We don’t expect Chris or our other moderators to be fact checkers,” Frank J. Fahrenkopf, Jr., co-chair, The Commission on Presidential Debates, told CNN on Sunday. “The minute the TV is off there will be plenty of fact checkers.”
The topics for Tuesday’s debate, selected 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 incorrect onstage Tuesday, it is the other candidate’s job to raise concern and essentially fact check live, Fahrenkopf said.
While fact-checking one another would seem essential for candidates’ strategies, it isn’t easy to accomplish.
“Lying works on live television,” Mark Lukasiewicz, dean of the Lawrence Herbert School of Communication at Hofstra University, told Stelter. “Live fact-checking is almost impossible and generally not terribly effective.”
But it’s not the moderator’s job to step in.
By Alexis Benveniste, CNN Business