IS CBS NEWS ABDICATING ITS MURROW CRONKITE LEGACY IN WALZ VANCE DEBATE?
It’s a cliché, but true. CBS News has been the legendary “gold standard” of journalism. It had some bumps along the way, but to say “CBS News” still conjured up images of stalwart role-model 20th century journalists such as Edward R. Murrow and Walter Cronkite. They were of the Greatest Generation and members of the Greatest Generation of journalists. News was then considered a network stewardship.
But that shifted moving into the 80s, 90s, and the 21st century. Now news is less a stewardship and more an entertainment component that generates big ratings and big bucks for networks and cable. Even so, overall, CBS News had the image of a class act.
Is that about to end?
CBS News is seemingly trying to play it down the middle as it’s caught in a political pincer.
The CNN hosted debate between Donald Trump and President Joe Biden sparked an uproar where MAGA world praised it and others considered it a disgrace since Trump told many lies and was not fact checked. In hosting the debate between Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris ABC News did fact checking in response to the uproar over CNN. Many Republicans and MAGA world was outraged because Trump was fact checked more. Footnote: Trump told more inaccurate and fact-challenged assertions (i.e. lies) than Harris.
Some will say there wasn’t a ton of fact checking in past debates as there was on the ABC debate. There’s a reason: there’s never been a candidate in recent history who says as many inaccurate things or assertions at variance with the facts as Donald Trump. One day CNN fact checker Daniel Dale will have a nervous breakdown.
When I got my masters in Journalism at Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism in 1973, professors hammered home the need to do your homework, be prepared, ask comprehensive questions and follow up questions. The art of the follow-up question – and persistent follow-up questions – has seemingly fallen by the wayside among many in today’s news biz.
But here’s the debate about the debate: Should the moderators fact-check the candidates?
CBS News said it will be up to the candidates — and not the moderators — to fact-check one another.
In the first presidential debate of this campaign cycle between Joe Biden and Donald Trump, CNN moderators did not fact-check the candidates. But during the debate between Trump and Kamala Harris, ABC moderators David Muir and Linsey Davis fact-checked Trump on at least four occasions, including Trump’s claims that pets were being eaten in Springfield, Ohio, and false claims that the 2020 election was stolen from him.
The way Muir and Davis handled it seemed perfect, even though Trump supporters cried foul. The moderators called out obviously false statements. While, yes, they are moderators, they also are journalists and have the responsibility to note when a candidate says something that clearly is not true.
They didn’t dwell on their fact-checking. They didn’t drag it out into long statements. They simply took what was said and corrected it and moved on.
Instead of leaving it up to the candidates to correct one another, it seems just as productive to correct blatant lies and then let the candidate respond to that if they wish. (It should be noted that CBS said its CBS News Confirmed will provide real-time fact-checking during the debate on its live blog and on social media, and then the post-debate analysis will include some of that fact-checking.)
In trying to play it down the middle in a political culture far different than even 9 years ago, has CBS News shot itself in the eye?
QR code for online fact checks. That's good. That CBS has a verification unit is good too. https://t.co/jIwKreoWcP But the point remains. The executives at ABC News thought their moderators could handle (at least some) live fact checking on air.
CBS has different ideas. https://t.co/nWZp8icbdl
— Jay Rosen (@jayrosen_nyu) September 30, 2024
CBS News, the ex-gold standard for broadcast journalism, is now #CBScowards. Its refusal to let moderators fact-check Vance-Walz betrays Edward R. Murrow, who denounced Joe McCarthy’s lies on the air; and Walter Cronkite, who denounced LBJ’s lie-ridden Vietnam war on the air.
— Dick Polman (@DickPolman1) September 30, 2024
Let's be clear about something: the only reason that CBS News is declining to fact check the vice presidential debate is that they're terrified of Trump and his supporters retaliating for being held accountable on the candidate's relentless lying and disinformation.
— Charlotte Clymer ?? (@cmclymer) September 29, 2024
I remind you of something disgraced, former CBS CEO Les Moonves said in 2016: “It May Not Be Good for America, but It’s Damn Good for CBS.” It sums up the corporate media’s failure at the most pivotal moment in this nation’s history https://t.co/cWwIdM9LsP
— Fighter for Democracy & the Rule of Law (@jaq518) September 30, 2024
WARNING: An open letter to @CBS regarding their appalling policy not to push back and call out LIES during the VP debate between Tim Walz and JD Vance. With democracy on the line, CBS moderators choosing not to push back on LIES will be carreer ending. The world is watching. ? pic.twitter.com/oQ6S7bQlPc
— Bill Madden (@maddenifico) September 29, 2024
I spent 30 years as an election analyst for CBS. It was the gold standard for television news. Those days, and their standards, are long gone. https://t.co/pAPChDCulJ
— Norman Ornstein (@NormOrnstein) September 29, 2024
CBS’s decision to let JD Vance lie with abandon is a small headache for Tim Walz, but a big, troubling instance of pre-emptive submission to Trump. https://t.co/V2HF0Y2Yc4
— Brian Beutler (@brianbeutler) September 30, 2024
Something's just not right about this facts-optional debate plan by @CBSNews. Forcing Tim Walz to fact check repeat liar JD Vance undermines what’s left of journalism credibility as I wrote in my latest for @HeartlandSignal??https://t.co/XzZeoEiIq0
— Jennifer Schulze (@NewsJennifer) October 1, 2024
Frankly, CBS and CNN should never have done debates if they weren't willing to do the entire job. If you don't have the guts; get off the damned platform. https://t.co/8RfvyrxSZ9
— Charlie Goldstein (@CharlieGoldst13) October 1, 2024
Let's get real: CBS News declining to fact check the veep debate should lead us to conclude that Trump/MAGA bullying of the media is working. Only one side is threatening media for telling the truth.
On the pod, @AmandaMarcotte and I dig into all this:https://t.co/F1bNlYpfAg
— Greg Sargent (@GregTSargent) September 30, 2024
I want to know how the journalists at CBS News feel about this, especially after the ABC's performance. https://t.co/hhJcHVFP4l
— Jay Rosen (@jayrosen_nyu) September 30, 2024
CBS refusing to fact check the Vp debate shows that when bad faith actors work the refs, they win.
— Molly Jong-Fast (@MollyJongFast) September 29, 2024
The ABC debate wasn’t even aggressive fact-checking, it was reserved for absolutely egregious lies. The Trump/ CBS position is that Vance should be allowed to say immigrants are eating pets, it’s up to Walz to fact-check, and the audience should be left in the dark on the truth. https://t.co/Mc8nkac5LP
— Jesse Lee (@JesseCharlesLee) September 30, 2024
If CBS is too afraid to do basic journalism they should shutter their news department. https://t.co/yzoSzT8gSx
— Ben Siemon (@BenjaminJS) September 30, 2024
CBS announces it no longer is in journalism business. https://t.co/qZREHtB0Uu
— Philip Gourevitch (@PGourevitch) September 29, 2024
The CBS decision to renounce moderator fact checks will leave the national debate audience all the poorer. And the plausible explanations for why CBS is telegraphing its unwillingness to do so bode ill for the state of the news media. https://t.co/blE5LBikVt
— Matthew Gertz (@MattGertz) September 30, 2024
“If someone says it’s raining and another person says it’s dry, it’s not your job to quote them both. It’s your job to look out the window and find out which is true.”
This tweet is for CBS News.
— JoGo (@akjakalope) September 29, 2024
I want @CBSNews execs to say on the record whether the Trump-Vance campaign asked them to give up fact-checking at the VP debate and whether they agreed to do that before Team Trump said yes. In other words, did CBS agree to go easy on Vance just to boost its brand?
— Mark Jacob (@MarkJacob16) September 29, 2024
UPDATE: CBS will be factchecking online. Stop. The vast majority aren't watching online. If you can fact check online do it on TV. This is a disgrace and disservice to demcracy. https://t.co/aXxcjO0IPH
— Jen "We aren't going back " Rubin ?? (@JRubinBlogger) September 30, 2024
at the debate if Vance says the administration is denying hurricane aid the moderators will be mute. Watz will say the truth: enormous aid and rescue is surging. But the average person may not know whom to believe. This is malpractice, CBS. You are enabling lies, dangerous ones.…
— Jen "We aren't going back " Rubin ?? (@JRubinBlogger) September 30, 2024
CBS Sunday Morning showing that school children in Finland are being taught to be better journalists than the CBS people who will moderate the VP debate. https://t.co/OomZb6QTps
— Elie Mystal (@ElieNYC) September 30, 2024
ID 143386396 | Cbs ©
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