CNN journalists Dana Bash and Jake Tapper were raked in the press and on social media for essentially doing absolutely nothing at the presidential candidates' debate other than announcing questions.
They called no one on lies, nor did they insist candidates answer the questions posed to them instead of veering into another topic entirely.
For all the "moderation" the journalists were expected to provide, critics said the questions could just as well have been spit out by a computer and microphones automatically silenced where a candidate's time was up.
CNN's political director David Chalian had earlier told the Washington Post that the "venue of a presidential debate between these two candidates is not the ideal venue for a live fact-checking exercise."
So to a "large extent, it almost didn't matter that Dana Bash and Jake Tapper were on stage," said Associated Press media reporter David Bauder, who noted that "more times than not," the candidates addressed whatever they wanted to instead of the questions, even when the questions were repeated.
Trump made more than 30 false claims in the debate, CNN's fact checker Daniel Dana revealed, including the former president's outlandish lie that babies are "aborted" after birth (there is no such thing as an abortion after birth; abortion by definition is pre-birth). But none of that was presented to TV viewers, who had to search them out separately online.
"The absence of real-time fact checking is the biggest failure of this debate," Anthony Coley, a contributor for NBC News and MSNBC, wrote on X.
CNN made clear from the start that Bash and Tapper would not be "referees" (or, apparently, journalists), and would not call out lies.
In addition, under CNN rules, other networks carrying the debate were barred with breaking into the debate with any commentary until the debate was over.
"I wish the CNN moderators did more fact-checking, letting the audience know when things are said that are flatly false. Not sure how it helps for a platform to transmit falsehoods disguised as facts," wrote New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof.
CNN stood by Bash and Tapper and the essentially anything-goes format.
"We are very proud of Jake and Dana. Our job was to make sure candidates were heard so voters can make informed decisions and we are pleased we were able to do that," the company said in a statement.
