Media prepares to fact check debates in real time
2020 Election,Trump V Biden,Media Industry,Facts And Fact Checking
From live blogs to video chyrons and tweets, media companies are introducing new ways to fact check the presidential debates in real time this year.
Between the lines: The debates themselves are likely to leave less room for live fact-checking from moderators than a traditional news interview would.
The big picture: Media insiders have a running argument over whether and how much the media should fact check live political speech given the unprecedented amount of misinformation around complex issues this year, like COVID-19.
Chris Wallace of Fox News, who will be moderating the first debut on Tuesday, said on Fox News on Sunday that he hopes to be "as invisible as possible" during the debate.
Presidential Debate Commission co-chair Frank Fahrenkopf Jr. said earlier that day on CNN that he doesn't expect any of the moderators to fact-check President Trump or former Vice President Joe Biden at the debates. "It's the role of the other person in a debate to be the one to raise that ... rather than the moderator," he said.
Driving the news: Nicole Carroll, editor-in-chief of USA Today, tells Axios that the USA Today Network, which includes over 200 local news sites as well as USAToday.com, will be live-checking the debate in real-time across all of its live video feeds and social channels.
