Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump claims that last night’s election debate the Democratic candidate Terrible Harris against was unfair.
– I was practically alone against three. The moderators were very unfair, everyone agrees, Trump said immediately after the debate.
According to Trump, the ABC news channel that organized the debate is “the worst of all the news channels”.
The conservative media Fox News also accused ABC of being biased.
Fox commentator Liz Peek wrotethat ABC was the biggest loser in the argument and said that the channel’s Moderators embarrassed themselves.
What particularly angered Trump and his supporters was that ABC Moderators addressed some of Trump’s false claims, even though Harris also made some false claims.
Peek also claimed that some of the fact-checks were flawed, but did not substantiate his view.
A Finnish researcher disagrees with the claims of Fox and Trump.
– At the very beginning, it has to be said that at the point when you try to talk about the referees after the match, it hasn’t gone terribly well in the match itself, research doctor at the University of Turku Oscar Winberg says.
Like the US media, Winberg considers Harris the winner of the election debate.
Even Fox News commentators evaluated Trump did poorly in the debate. Trump himself considered that he had won the debate.
Proofreading the arguments is difficult
Winberg points out that fact-checking in debates has always been a challenge.
In a live broadcast, it is almost impossible to correct all incorrect statements. Drawing the line between a lie and misleading information is also tricky. Constantly interfering with the facts can also lead to the debate turning into an argument between the moderator and the debater.
Winberg himself would still have liked to see more fact-checking. It’s a good thing for him that even some of Trump’s most blatant lies were debunked.
For example, this Trump lie was debunked live:
In June, CNN was criticized for not correcting Trump’s false claims at all when Trump and the president Joe Biden got together.
Winberg believes that this is precisely why ABC decided to address even some of Trump’s claims.
Did Harris have home field advantage?
ABC moderators on Fox were also accused of asking Trump more tough questions and letting Harris off the hook.
According to Winberg, it is very difficult to evaluate the claim. It is true that Harris managed to dodge some questions and turn the conversation elsewhere, says the researcher.
– But it’s a bit part of the spirit of the game, that you have to know how to do that too.
Winberg also emphasizes that evaluating the fair treatment of candidates is difficult because Trump lies constantly.
– These two candidates were not treated in exactly the same way, but that does not mean that ABC was on one side of the other.
Trump would have liked the debate to be held on Fox, which would not have corrected the former president’s claims.
According to Winberg, Harris has some kind of home field advantage whenever the debate is on the “right news channel”.
– If you say things like what Trump said, which have no connection to reality, then it’s always a challenge if you’re speaking in the real news media, Winberg says and points out that the news media check the facts.
Winberg also emphasizes that Trump accused ABC of being a fake news channel even before the debate.
– That argument has always been ready in the toolbox if Trump doesn’t perform well in the debate. Then let’s attack ABC.