Tomorrow, June 27. the first 2024 presidential debate will be broadcast live on CNN. President Biden faces off with convicted felon former president Donald Trump, a bigot, racist, convicted rapist, miscreant and degenerate recently convicted on 34 felony counts for falsifying documents in order to deceive voters. 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.
Editor, Publisher Gregg W. Morris