ABC's David Muir and Linsey Davis have been widely criticized for their performance as moderators for former President Trump's first televised debate with sitting Vice President Kamala Harris, and some speculate that it's played a part in the decline in viewership of their show following the contentious conversation.
The Daily Caller reports:
Ratings for ABC's “World News Tonight” fell by over 10% since the Sept. 10 debate between former President Donald Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris hosted by ABC News hosts David Muir and Linsey Davis.
The Disney-owned network's broadcast news program hosted by Muir that airs at 6:30 p.m. EDT drew an average of 7.6 million viewers before the September 10 debate, but only drew an average of 6.7 million viewers in the three days after the debate, accordingto Fox News. Muir and Davis, who hosts the program on weekends, were criticized for making so-called “fact checks” on Trump more often than Harris during the event, even though Harris made false statements about Trump's position on in-vitro fertilization (IVF) and other issues.
The hosts defended their actions, as some Democrats complained that Trump was able to tell lies in his debate with Joe Biden earlier this year, ultimately ousting the sitting President from his own ticket.
In an interview with the Los Angeles Times the day after the debate, Davis said, “People were concerned that statements were allowed to just hang and not [be] disputed by the candidate Biden, at the time, or the moderators.”
Many argue that it's up to candidates to challenge and correct inaccuracies from their opponents on the debate stage, and that the moderators' responsibility is to facilitate that as opposed to interjecting themselves.
Fox News reports:
The 12% drop in viewers for “World News Tonight” is more significant than slight declines “CBS Evening News” and “NBC Nightly News” saw when comparing the three episodes following ABC's debate to the year-to-date totals, although Muir's newscast remained the No. 1 broadcast evening newscast.
An ABC whistleblower alleges that the network allowed the Harris campaign to dictate the terms — specifically the “live fact checking” — of the debate, and claims to have audio recordings that will substantiate his version of events.
Prior to the debate, media accountability groups raised concerns about the moderators and their ability to hold a fair discussion, as they both have been public about favoring Harris over Trump, and Davis's journalistic integrity was brought into question after lobbing softballs to Harris during an interview with her, as well as some of the questions she's asked recently — insinuating that Trump was traveling to a town in Michigan to court white supremacists despite Biden visiting the same town.
