I’d love fact checking, but I can’t see that working in real-time. Maybe with a backstage team running a banner across the screen?
In any case, all I wanted was the moderators to force them to stay on topic. No, once your rebuttal is up, shut up and answer the current question. Can’t stay on topic? Muted.
The microphone muting did nothing.
At one point Biden started talking over Trump so they turned his microphone back on.
Gish Gallop is a Catch 22: muted mics mean the opponent can’t interrupt and fact check; no muted mics means constant interruption.
The Gisher needs to actually respect decorum for fact checking from moderators.
We need to not have Gish Gallop people in debates. But then we wouldn’t have a debate, because the GQP can’t fucking stop themselves.
Gee…
If only someone had warned everyone that doing away with the bipartisan debate commission and letting the party’s and CNN run everything was a shit idea…
Eh, the 2016 and 2020 debates didn’t do any better at challenging Trumps lies.
We have a political environment that lacks credible independent commentators (e.g. Walter Cronkite), so anyone presenting themselves as independent who calls bullshit on a politico is immediately labeled as biased.
What mechanism do you think could overcome this and pull the mic plug to reduce the incentive to lie without immediately being vigorously attacked?
They will be vigorously attacked by the right regardless.
Telling the truth is simple. Conmen succeed only when people don’t tell the truth.
The corporate news media have painted themselves into a corner that only they can get themselves out of. They will need to make courageous choices, put the good of the country and public service first, and accept that a click-based-horserace is a horrible idea.
But they won’t because there’s no profit in that.
If facts mattered, Trump wouldn’t be leading in the polls, let’s be honest. Nothing CNN said to fact check would matter for those who need to hear it because they’ve already been indoctrinated to believe CNN won’t be truthful anyway.
This entire debate was about optics: can Trump keep himself together, and can Biden ward off criticism of his senility? To Trump’s credit, he outperformed. Biden did not. And since Biden volunteered this debate, this is on him.
