Here’s how CBS plans to approach fact-checking the Vance-Walz vice presidential debate

How much time moderators should spend fact-checking presidential candidates at debates has been the subject of heated debate this election season. CBS News has chosen a unique approach that combines fact-checking with more straightforward candidate management for the upcoming vice presidential debate, which airs Tuesday night.

A source familiar with the preparations told Mediaite that CBS anchors would largely leave the matter to the Democrats Tim Waltz and Republicans JD Vance to take the lead in checking each other’s facts.

According to CBS News, the debate format gives each candidate two minutes to respond to questions and the opposing candidate two minutes to respond.

Each candidate is then given one minute to present further counterarguments. At the discretion of the moderators Norah O’Donnell And Margaret BrennanCandidates may each be given an additional minute to continue the discussion.

However, during the 90-minute debate at CBS News studios in New York, moderators may step in to offer clarifications if facts remain unchecked or “if something outrageous is said,” the source said.

“The goal of a debate is for the candidates to debate and hold each other accountable, and CBS News will provide opportunities for that,” the source said. “A debate is not an interview, and the format is completely different.”

Elsewhere, CBS will conduct a real-time fact check of the proceedings. The CBS News Confirmed unit, made up of forensic journalists and data experts, will verify claims and address misinformation in a live blog, social media and post-debate coverage on the network.

The source made it clear that she was comparing the format to the Sept. 10 presidential debate between former presidents hosted by ABC News Donald Trump and vice president Kamala Harris. Following this debate moderators David Muir And Linsey Davis came under fire from Republicans for live fact-checking candidates and focusing primarily on Trump.

“ABC News has gone too far,” another industry source noted to Mediaite. “They became history.”

In that sense, the CBS News debate appears to land somewhere between the CNN debate, where the moderators did virtually no fact-checking, and the ABC News event, where the moderators made short but succinct interjections.

CBS News appears poised to set itself apart and let the candidates run the show, keeping disruption from moderator fact-checking to a minimum to make an editorial distinction between debate and reporting.

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