Liar, Liar!

Factchecking during a debate is tougher than it seems, and of limited utility. The problem of dishonesty in politics is much bigger than that.

Back in 2008 and 2012, while covering Mitt Romney’s Presidential campaigns, I wrote a couple of pieces arguing that our political system, including our political media, had fallen badly behind the advances in lying. Lying, under the professional guises of marketing, public relations, communications, and advertising, had become sophisticated and brazen in ways that we didn’t know how to counter.

Needless to say, Donald Trump drove through that opening with the confidence of PT Barnum, and exposed just how vulnerable our system is.

I bring this up in the context of the CBS News pronouncement that its moderators will not attempt to factcheck JD Vance and Tim Walz during tonight’s debate. There’s been a lot of online consternation over this. I agree that the announcement is bizarre, but I think people are wildly overestimating the utility, and feasibility, of factchecking live political theater.