CBS News says it's up to Vance and Walz to vet each other in a full debate

NEW YORK (AP) — CBS News, which hosts vice presidential candidates JD Vance and Tim Walz next week for the third debate of the general election campaign, says it's up to politicians — not moderators — to fact-check their opponents.

The 90-minute debate, taking place Tuesday at 9 p.m. Eastern time in a Manhattan studio that once housed the children's show “Captain Kangaroo,” will feature outgoing “CBS Evening News” anchor Norah O'Donnell and “Face the Nation” moderated. Hosted by Margaret Brennan.

During the ABC debate between presidential candidates Kamala Harris and Donald Trump earlier this month, network anchors said on four occasions pointed out inaccurate statements from Trump and none from Harris. That angered the former president and his supporters, who complained it was unfair.

Last spring, CNN anchors not questioned all the facts presented by Trump and President Joe Biden in the debate, where Biden's poor performance ultimately led to him exit of the race.

On Friday, CBS said that it was up to Vance and Walz to point out each other's misstatements and that “the moderators will facilitate these opportunities during rebuttal time.” The network said its dedicated misinformation unit, CBS News Confirmed, will conduct real-time fact-checking on its live blog and social media during the debate and will be on-air during post-debate analysis.

CBS News is making it clear with its plans that it wants to avoid the excitement of drawing attention to misleading statements from candidates. Some argue that offstage fact-checking is too little, too late and invisible to many of the event's audience members.

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 successfully encouraging candidates to keep their opponents honest.

“I’ll be interested to see how this works in practice,” she said. “Still, you're essentially shifting one of your journalistic responsibilities onto the candidates themselves, so I don't think that's ideal. It takes journalistic courage to be willing to fact-check candidates, because candidates will absolutely 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's statements on abortion, the 2020 election, crime statistics and reports on immigrants in Ohio Eating pets.

Unlike the two presidential debates, both sides agreed that the vice presidential candidates' microphones would not be turned off while their opponent spoke, increasing the chance of a real exchange and increasing the risk that the two men would discuss each other. CBS says it reserves the right to turn off a “hot mic” if necessary. Each candidate has two minutes to make a closing statement, with Vance winning a virtual coin toss and electing to have the final word.

There's a lot at stake for CBS News

It's a big moment for CBS News, which has long ranked third in the evening news ratings. O'Donnell just announced it she would resign out of the role. Brennan is considered a rising star.

As with the presidential debates, CBS is making its feed available to other networks to broadcast on television, and many are expected to take advantage of the opportunity.

There will be no audience when Vance and Walz meet in a West Side studio that has previously hosted editions of “60 Minutes,” “CBS Sunday Morning,” “Inside the NFL,” “Geraldo” and “Captain Kangaroo.” “ took place. ”

It is unknown whether there will be further opportunities to see Trump and Harris on the same stage together before the November 5 election. Harris accepted an invitation from CNN another debate on October 23, but Trump rejected it. In a Quinnipiac University poll released earlier this week, likely voters said by about a two-to-one margin that they would like to see a rematch.

CBS' “60 Minutes” wants to win both Harris and Trump successive interviews That will air on October 7th, but none of the contestants have committed to it yet.

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David Bauder writes about media for the AP. Follow him at http://x.com/dbauder.