Viewers of the Vice Presidential debate on CBS tonight will be able to use QR codes to fact check Republican VP Candidate JD Vance and Democratic VP Candidate Tim Walz.
Fact-checking has had a rather checkered history in recent campaign debates, with certain presidential candidates advocating the process—which allows moderators to correct incorrect statements from the debate stage—while others claim biased moderators corrupt the events.
Former President Donald Trump, for example, severely criticized moderators of the only debate between himself and Vice President Kamala Harris last month, calling for one of the moderators—ABC News Anchor David Muir—to be fired and for the FCC to repeal ABC’s broadcast license, eliciting this response from FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel:
“The First Amendment is a cornerstone of our democracy,” she said. “The FCC does not revoke licenses for broadcast stations simply because a political candidate disagrees with or dislikes content or coverage.”
CBS News, which will air the debate live tonight at 9:00 p.m. ET, is taking another approach—offering up a QR code for viewers to scan with their devices that wil take them to a CBS News website where about 20 CBS journalists will fact-check the debaters comments in real-time, according to the New York Times. Although the debate will be simulcast on most major broadcast and news networks, the code will only appear on CBS.
“The idea is to give people that second-screen experience,” said Claudia Milne, the senior vice president for standards and practices at CBS News told the Times, adding, “The audience can get the takeaway they need in a responsible and smart way.”
The debate will be moderated by Norah O’Donnell, the anchor of “CBS Evening News” and Margaret Brennan, host of CBS’s Sunday morning political talk show “Face the Nation,” and marks the first time a presidential or vice presidential debate has been moderated by two women. Ms O’Donnell will be stepping down after the election.
