For people like me who care about truth in politics, presidential debates (like the one scheduled to take place here in Atlanta Thursday) are frustrating, depressing spectacles. The rules and structures of these events make it impossible to ensure that the American people get the facts.
Over the years, some moderators have made scattershot efforts to fact check one or two claims in real time during the debates. But those efforts make little to no difference amid a potential onslaught of lies and misleading claims.
Credit: Handout
Credit: Handout
In a recent episode of my new fact-checking podcast They Stand Corrected, I explained that the rules of these debates generally preclude moderators from responding to candidates’ statements. Even if moderators don’t sign documents agreeing to these rules, by participating they have nevertheless accepted the role. Debates are not interviews; they are events that moderators have been invited to host. Their jobs consist mostly of keeping the candidates to time limits.
News networks that host these debates note that the moderators are at least allowed to ask questions. But what use is that, when candidates can lie in their answers? It reminds me of a famous scene from Seinfeld in which he goes to pick up a rental car but the company did not save one for him. “That’s really the most important part of the reservation: the holding,” he explains. “Anybody can just take them.”
Having spent years as a fact checker, including at CNN during pivotal elections, here’s what I tell people about these debates: Imagine a firefighter on a stage, with millions of people watching. The firefighter welcomes up other people, who are allowed to bring all the kindling, kerosene and matches they want. They start fires, which the firefighter can do nothing about. That’s what happens at these debates. They’re arson for truth.
We live at a time in which there are great fears about truth losing its currency. A time when “alternative facts” can inspire a violent insurrection, as we saw on Jan. 6, 2021. But this problem is not limited to politics. Violent anti-Israel protesters are every bit as driven by lies. In my podcast, I have busted widely believed myths about “occupation,” “international law” and alleged “death tolls” from Gaza, which are driven by terrorists’ propaganda. Many “mainstream” media fuel lies about the Middle East, just as many right-wing media have fueled lies about the 2020 election.
The public needs media that are fiercely committed to truth. That’s why news networks should announce that they will no longer host these debates. They can submit questions for non-journalist moderators to ask, and they should absolutely cover and fact check the debates afterward. But hosting gives these events a false sheen of journalistic legitimacy.
Sadly, that won’t happen. Networks have become part of the problem, giving live platforms to people who spew falsehoods. And sadly, networks see these debates as badges of honor, showing their staff members as being at the top of their game — even though they’re not allowed to achieve the actual goal of journalism: ensuring truth.
So at the very least, moderators should use their question time to provide facts that some voters don’t know. For example, in asking Trump about election lies, hosts should point out that members of former President Donald Trump’s own legal team and GOP officials told him that claims of election fraud had no merit. There are probably people watching who have only consumed partisan media and don’t know that Trump’s own team members have refuted those claims.
And in asking President Joe Biden questions about U.S. support for Israel, for example, journalists should point out that alleged death tolls in Gaza come from the terrorist group Hamas, which recently dramatically dropped the number of women and children allegedly killed — and that even those figures pale in comparison to civilians killed in previous wars, including in the U.S.-led war on terrorism and recently in Ethiopia and Syria.
Personally, I recommend that people who care about truth skip the debates and instead consume fact-checked work in the following days. Enough with the spectacles. It’s time to demand that these news networks stand for truth. By denying the networks our live viewership, we can send that message.
-Josh Levs is host of the podcast and newsletter They Stand Corrected.
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