NEW YORK (AP) — Joe Biden and Donald Trump are Thursday's debateWith CNN hosts Dana Bash and Jake Tapper also set to be in front of the camera, there's a lot at stake for the show as the network fights to stay relevant in a changing media landscape.
CNN has hosted dozens of town halls and political forums, but it has never hosted a presidential debate, let alone this early in a campaign, like no other network has.
“This is a big moment for CNN,” said Frank Sesno, a former CNN Washington bureau chief who is now a professor of media and public policy at George Washington University. “CNN has to prove itself again. It has revolutionized news before and it has to show it can do it again.”
CNN is struggling at a time when many consumers are cutting their cable subscriptions, and most news organizations are skeptical that the campaign will generate consumer interest.
The remaining media have made it clear that they prefer opinion programming. Fox News Channel averaged 2.14 million prime-time viewers this month, followed by MSNBC with 1.22 million and CNN with 525,000, according to the Nielsen Co. That's down 17 percent for CNN from last June.
CNN Chairman and CEO Mark Thompson said: Less than one year since joining the company And they've talked more about the Internet than TV as an opportunity for growth. But the fact that both sides chose CNN for the first debate makes some sense. A well-run, enlightening event could open people's eyes and remind them of CNN's legacy as the first all-news television network. If it goes off the rails, the stain could take years to wash away.
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“This is a pivotal moment in the campaign,” said CNN vice president and political director David Chalian. “It's the earliest presidential debate in history, and it's obviously a great honor and a great responsibility for CNN to host it.”
Striving to reach a larger audience
CNN may not have its largest U.S. audience on Thursday.
CNN, putting public service above profit, offered to have the other networks broadcast the debate. ABC, CBS, NBC, Fox News Channel, MSNBC, PBS and C-SPAN agreed. The other networks would also have the right to sell their own advertising time during the two commercial breaks.
Each network had to agree to CNN's rules, which meant keeping the CNN logo on screen during the debate and not allowing its own commentators to interrupt. Internationally, CNN is the only network that broadcasts the debate.
The event, held in a studio in Atlanta, will not have a live audience, a key consideration not just for the Biden campaign but also for CNN, which is considering hosting the network's town hall with Trump in 2023. Criticized The main reason is the presence of Trump supporters.
CNN also controls a mute button that turns off a candidate's microphone when their opponent is speaking. This is also reactive. Biden and many viewers have been swayed by Trump's Frequent interruptions This was the first of two debates held in 2020.
Michael Smerconish said that in an unscientific poll of his SiriusXM radio listeners, 90% were in favor of a “mute” button, but Smerconish, who also hosts a weekend show on CNN, counts himself among the 10% of listeners who don't like the idea.
“There's a danger that the debate will become a bland experience, lacking a good exchange of ideas,” Smerconish said in an interview with The Associated Press.
But it remains to be seen. While Chalian declined to say who will be manning the mute button, he did say that opponents' voices may be picked up if they speak up, but they probably won't be the dominant voice.
The bureau doesn't try to fact-check candidates in real time, he said.
“Obviously, if there are significant facts that need to be verified or the record needs to be clarified, Jake and Dana can do that,” he said. “But that's not their role. They're not here to participate in this debate. They're here to facilitate the Trump-Biden debate.”
Will CNN provide an impartial forum?
Long before the debate, Trump and his supporters had argued that CNN's presence would make it an unfair contest — Trump said at a rally where he denounced “fake Tappers” that he would debate three people, not one — but that the Trump campaign had agreed to the rules and a moderator in advance.
CNN reporter Casey Hunt ended an interview with Trump's spokeswoman, Caroline Leavitt, on Monday after she repeatedly attacked the hosts.
“We have no expectation that this will be a fair debate,” said Tim Graham, director of media analysis at the conservative Media Research Center. “The way Tapper and Bash are moderating it gives the distinct impression that it's not going to be a fair debate.”
What Graham will be interested to see is how many times the moderator interrupts Trump and how many times he stops Biden.
This attitude speaks to the commercial predicament CNN is in. Egged on by Trump, many of his supporters feel that CNN is not a fact-finding network but is biased against them. If you disagree with Trump and want your views represented, MSNBC is a more satisfying destination.
“Our job is to be as prepared as possible to facilitate and moderate a debate between the candidates,” Chalian said. “That's our focus. I try not to pay too much attention to pre-spin or post-spin. I'm focused on the debate itself.”
A few days before the event, he seems to be keeping his head down and ready to tackle a pressure-packed event that could easily become suffocating if left unchecked.
“Let me be very clear,” he said, “the stakes are highest for Donald Trump and Joe Biden. They are the participants in this debate.”
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David Bauder writes for The Associated Press. http://twitter.com/dbauder.
