Fact-checking at presidential debates is often left up to debate moderators or the viewers themselves, but Bloomberg TV has decided to share the burden.
The debate, which is being hosted by NBC and moderated by Lester Holt, will be broadcast on C-SPAN, ABC, CBS, FOX, NBC, CNN, Fox News, MSNBC, and Bloomberg TV. While other television networks will fact-check the candidates’ claims during their post-debate coverage, Bloomberg TV is the only one that has committed to calling them out in real-time.
This move goes directly against a comment that came out of Donald Trump’s campaign on Sunday. The Republican nominee’s campaign manager, Kellyanne Conway, told ABC’s “This Week” that it should not be up to the media to fact-check candidates’ claims. “I really don’t appreciate campaigns thinking it is the job of the media to go and be these virtual fact-checkers, and that these debate moderators should somehow do their bidding,” she said on the show.
This seemed to be a pointed remark at Hillary Clinton’s campaign. Many of her supporters have been calling for more aggressive fact-checking, particularly following a presidential forum with Matt Lauer who was widely criticized for failing to call Trump out on certain claims. Specifically, Trump said that he had been against the Iraq War from the start, though he voiced support for it on the Howard Stern Show in 2002; additionally, he reiterated his suggestion that Gold Star parent Ghazala Khan wasn’t allowed to speak during her husband’s speech because of her religion, which Khan herself spoke out about after the fact.
The debate will take place on Monday, Sept. 26 at 9:00 p.m. EST.