Tomorrow, the first 2024 presidential debate will be broadcast live on CNN, where President Biden will face off with disgraced former president Donald Trump—recently convicted on 34 felony counts for falsifying documents in order to deceive voters. Yet CNN has not committed to live fact-checking the debate, which means Trump could have a platform to spew vitriol, lies, and dangerous disinformation to millions. It’s not only reckless, it’s dangerous.
Over the course of his four years of presidency, The Washington Post counted 30,573 falsehoods made by Trump, many of them outright lies.1 This barrage of misinformation has eroded trust in our government, media, and democracy. It is irresponsible to give a notorious liar free airtime to manipulate and lie to voters ahead of a critical election—we have to demand that the media do better.
During the last debate between Biden and Trump in 2020, the confrontation completely devolved, with Trump launching into long tirades and petty insults. The debates were called “chaotic” and “unwatchable.”2 CNN has implemented a series of rules in order to avoid the pitfalls of the last debate cycle, but we need them to know that we are watching and expecting them to enforce the standards of conduct. And it’s not just monitoring the speaking time and controlling the microphones—the moderators and network have a responsibility to fact-check and call out lies in real time.
Thanks for all you do.
–Valeria, Isbah, Jensine, Aliya, and the rest of the team
P.S. See our email below from last week to read more about the spectacle of the last debate cycle and why we can’t let the media make the same mistakes this time around.
Sources:
1. “Trump casts doubt on the legitimacy of the election and refuses to condemn White supremacists in chaotic debate,” CNN, September 30, 2020
https://www.cnn.com/2020/09/29/politics/us-election-first-presidential-debate/index.html
2. “Trump’s false or misleading claims total 30,573 over 4 years,” The Washington Post, January 24, 2021
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2021/01/24/trumps-false-or-misleading-claims-total-30573-over-four-years/
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