Ronni ButtsViewers had no shortage of access to the facts during the vice-presidential debate between Sen. J.D. Vance and Gov. Tim Walz last night through CBS’s live fact-checking.
If unsure about the veracity of the candidates’ claims, viewers had the option to access live fact-checking information on cbsnews.com or by scanning a QR code during the debate.
“The idea is to give people that second-screen experience … The audience can get the takeaway they need in a responsible and smart way,” Claudia Milne, CBS News senior vice president for standards and practices, told the New York Times.
In real time, each posting isolated the suspect quote from the debate and categorized the statement as “true,” “mostly true,” “true, needs context,” “partially true,” “partially true, needs context,” “misleading,” “needs context,” “false,” or “false, needs context.”
In all, six claims were tagged as “false,” four of which were said by Sen. J.D. Vance. One of his statements contained false claims that Vice President Harris has made no investments in environmental policy. Tracy Wholf, CBS fact-checker, provided an excerpt of Vance’s quote and under “Details” explained that there has been a $370 billion investment in the Inflation Reduction Act from the Biden-Harris administration intended to fund clean energy “innovation, production, and utilization.”
One of the two statements marked “partially true” was Walz’s claim that “the last 12 months saw the largest decrease in opioid deaths in our nation’s history — 30% decrease in Ohio.” According to CBS fact-checker Alexander Tin, opioid deaths have indeed fallen to record lows since 2021, but Ohio’s rates have fallen just 18%.
The rules for the debate were also made clear at the onset when CBS moderators Margaret Brennan and Norah O’Donnell read them to the candidates and the audience. A link was also displayed on the screen that took viewers to a website that listed the debate rules.
Emphasis on clarifying debate rules and fact-checking has arisen after the presidential debate between Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump in September when ABC moderators David Muir and Lindsey Davis received heavy backlash from conservative viewers for correcting Trump’s statements more often than Harris.
Trump pursued this like of criticism, claiming on Truth Social that the debate was “THREE ON ONE.”
“In the years that I’ve been watching debates, until relatively recently, we didn’t have [live fact-checking],” said Artemesia Stanberry, an NCCU associate political science professor. According to Stanberry, she hasn’t missed a televised debate since she was 18 years old.
“I think it’s an effort to provide the American people with the most accurate information because both sides, Republicans or Democrats, are going to exaggerate … but as a media operation … you want your viewers to have the most accurate information.”
Other news publications, including Washington Post, USA Today, and NPR, also provided live fact-checking information.
