General Discussion

and showing how it is not that difficult to do. It's almost criminal that ABC (and CNN before) to refuse to do even the most basic level of fact checking.

https://www.poynter.org/fact-checking/2024/yes-debate-moderators-should-fact-check-the-presidential-candidates-cnn-donatd-trump-joe-biden/

(A snippet of the article below)

Clearly, the presidential debate between Joe Biden and Donald Trump in June was one of the most consequential in presidential history. It directly resulted in Biden’s departure from the race and the ascendance of Kamala Harris to the Democratic nomination.

But it had another notable feature: a noticeable lack of fact-checking.

While Biden meandered and wandered, saying things that either didn’t make sense or were hard to follow, Trump turned to his very long regular playlist of falsehoods about the economy, abortion, immigration and election fraud. CNN’s Jake Tapper and Dana Bash didn’t fact-check either one, giving a simple “thank you” to each answer and moving on to the next question. It was a purposeful laying back and letting the candidates say whatever they wanted.

You can argue, and CNN did, that a passive approach keeps the moderators out of the story and allows the candidates to reveal themselves. But it’s also an approach criticized — rightfully so — for leaving the voting public in the dark. In the high-stakes race for the presidency, many voters are just tuning in and not well-versed in current political messaging. They won’t necessarily know what’s true and what’s false without getting at least a few cues from journalist moderators.

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