J.D. Vance and Tim Walz debate at the CBS News debate. (Courtesy of CBS)
CBS News did not sit idly on the sidelines.
Moderators Norah O’Donnell and Margaret Brennan facilitated a substantive vice presidential debate between J.D. Vance and Tim Walz on Tuesday night, while also interjecting with necessary fact-checks during the high-stakes political showdown.
By clearly — and authoritatively — stating the facts on issues such as climate change and immigration, O’Donnell and Brennan ensured that reality was not warped by Vance, much to the GOP candidate’s displeasure. After Brennan fact-checked Vance on the Haitian migrants in Springfield, Vance even complained.
“The rules were that you guys weren’t going to fact check,” Vance claimed.
The written rules, however, did not appear to address fact checking. Nevertheless, ahead of the debate, CBS News had initially signaled O’Donnell and Brennan would perhaps avoid doing so in real-time, instead placing the onus on the candidates to fact-check each other. That led to widespread condemnation of CBS News, including from former anchor Dan Rather, who wrote a piece zinging the Tiffany Network.
But, as I reported Monday, CBS News had in fact left open the possibility that the moderators would step in and establish a baseline of truth. When the lights turned on and the cameras started rolling Tuesday night, O’Donnell and Brennan ultimately made the prudent editorial choice to correct the record on issues of significance.
While the fact-checks were effective, the debate wasn’t necessarily perfect. As The New Yorker’s Susan Glasser pointed out, “The conceit of this CBS debate is that this is just a normal policy election, two guys shooting the shit about housing starts and health care financing.”
“Misses the moment pretty dramatically,” Glasser added.
Indeed, the crucial issue of democracy and the January 6 insurrection was relegated to the latter half of the Vance-Walz face-off. And when Vance misled the public on election denialism and declined to say whether Donald Trump lost the 2020 election, O’Donnell and Brennan opted to stay silent.
Nevertheless, CBS News largely did an admirable job. And the network has already drawn blowback from Trump and his dishonest MAGA Media allies for it. Trump wasted no time assailing Brennan and O’Donnell, claiming on his Truth Social platform the former “lied” on the issue of immigration (she did not) and that the latter was “fired from CBS for low ratings” (she was not).
“When is she going to fact check Tampon Tim on all of his false statements?” Trump raged at one point in the evening after a fact-check from Brennan on climate change. “Another repeat with the Fake News being unfair to the Republican Candidate, and trying to get the pathetic Democrat across the finish line. But it doesn’t matter, the Public sees it for what it is – FAKE NEWS!”
On Fox News, Trump’s mouthpieces echoed the attacks. “CBS was terrible,” Jesse Watters commented. “They should be ashamed,” Sean Hannity said in a separate tirade.
The attacks on the network are likely to continue in the days ahead, if the revenge campaign against ABC News over that network’s debate fact-checks is any indication. What will be interesting to look out for is whether Trump and his allies rope in Shari Redstone and Paramount Global, which will need government approval to merge with David Ellison’s Skydance, as they smear the network in the days ahead.
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