NEW YORK — Joe Biden and Donald Trump will not be alone in Thursday’s debate. Moderators Dana Bash and Jake Tapper of CNN will also be on camera, and there’s a lot at stake for their network as it fights for relevance in a changing media environment.
CNN has hosted dozens of town halls and political forums over the years, but never a general election presidential debate, much less one so early in a campaign. No network has it.
“This is a big moment for CNN,” said former CNN Washington bureau chief Frank Sesno, now a professor of media and public affairs at George Washington University. “CNN needs to reassert itself. It has to show that it has led a news revolution before and can do it again.”
As a television network, CNN is struggling at a time when many consumers are cutting the cord and most media outlets are wondering whether the campaign will spark consumer interest.
Those who remained expressed a clear preference for opinion programming. Fox News Channel averaged 2.14 million viewers in prime time this month, with MSNBC at 1.22 million and CNN at 525,000, according to Nielsen. This represents a 17% drop from last June for CNN.
CNN President and CEO Mark Thompson was at the company for less than a year and has talked more about the internet than television as an opportunity for growth. However, it means something that both campaigns chose CNN for the first debate. A well-run and enlightening event can open some eyes and remind people of CNN’s legacy as the first all-news television network. If it goes off the rails, it will be a stain that could take years to remove.
“This is a hugely important moment in this campaign,” said David Chalian, vice president and political director at CNN. “It’s the first presidential debate ever. It is obviously a huge privilege and a huge responsibility for CNN to host it.”
It’s possible — even likely — that CNN won’t even have the biggest American audience on Thursday.
Choosing public service over pure profit, CNN offered to allow other networks to air the debate feed; ABC, CBS, NBC, Fox News Channel, MSNBC, PBS and C-SPAN will do so. The other networks also have the right to sell their own advertising time during the two commercial breaks.
The networks had to agree to CNN’s rules — they must keep the CNN insignia on the screen and cannot interrupt their own commentators while the debate airs. Internationally, only CNN broadcasts it.
The event, in a studio in Atlanta, will not have a live audience. This was important for the Biden campaign, but also for CNN. Network town hall with Trump in 2023 was criticized largely due to the presence of Trump supporters.
CNN will also control a mute button, to turn off the candidate’s microphone when his opponent is speaking. This is also reactive; Biden and many viewers were frustrated by Trump’s decision frequent interruptions during the first of two debates between them in 2020.
When he conducted an unscientific poll among listeners of his SiriusXM radio show, Michael Smerconish said 90% were in favor of the “mute” button. But Smerconish, who also hosts a weekend show on CNN, is among the 10% who don’t like the idea.
“You run the risk of the debate becoming an antiseptic experience,” missing some good exchanges, Smerconish said in an interview with the Associated Press.
Stay tuned, however. Chalian, who declined to say who would control the mute button, said an opponent’s voice could still be picked up if they spoke. It simply won’t be the dominant voice.
The network will not attempt to fact-check candidates in real time, he said.
“Obviously, if there is some egregious fact that needs 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 are not here to participate in this debate. They are here to facilitate a debate between Trump and Biden.”
Long before the debate, Trump and his supporters were already presenting the notion that, due to the presence of CNN, it will not be a fair fight. At a campaign rally where he denounced the “fake Tapper,” Trump said he would debate three people instead of one — even though his campaign agreed in advance to the rules and moderators.
On CNN Monday, the network’s Kasie Hunt interrupted an interview with Trump press secretary Karoline Leavitt after she repeatedly attacked the moderators.
“Our side has no expectation that this will be a fair debate,” said Tim Graham, director of media analysis at the conservative Media Research Center. “When you watch Tapper and Bash anchor, you get the distinct impression that you’re not going to get a fair debate.”
What Graham will be watching for: How many times will the moderators interrupt Trump and how many times will they impede Biden?
To a large extent, the attitude shows how commercially inserted CNN is. Egged on by Trump, many of his supporters consider CNN to be biased against them, rather than a network that follows the facts. And if you oppose Trump and want to see your opinion reflected, MSNBC is a more satisfying destination.
“Our job is simply to ensure we are best prepared to facilitate and moderate debate between candidates,” Chalian said. “That’s our focus. I really try not to pay too much attention to pre-spin or post-spin. I’m really focused on the debate itself.”
Days before the event, a keep-your-head-down-and-work attitude seems to be how he’s dealing with a pressure-filled event that can overwhelm you if you let it.
“Let’s be clear,” he said. “The stakes are higher for Donald Trump and Joe Biden. They are the participants in this debate.”
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David Bauder writes about media for the Associated Press. Follow him on http://twitter.com/dbauder.
