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Final Presidential Debate Fact-Checking: Where To Find Live Fact-Checking In The Style Of VH1’s ‘Pop Up Video’

By Nathan Francis
Published on: 08:18 PST, Oct 19, 2016

Viewers who want to see live fact-checking in the third and final presidential debate are in luck, with a new service offering up-to-the-second fact-checks in the style of VH1’s classic show Pop Up Video.

As the presidential debates draw to a close with Wednesday’s night’s affair, there is a huge emphasis on fact-checking the comments made by Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump. The first two debates were dominated by questions of whether the moderators should be required to fact-check the candidates in real time, and viewers will once again be left to their own for the last presidential debate.

Moderator Chris Wallace said this weekend that he would speak up to the candidates and force them to clarify statements if needed, but didn’t plan on being a full-time fact-checker.

“An interview ? it’s you and the candidate, and you’re the person holding them to account,” Wallace said Fox News Sunday. “This is a debate. And, you know, they’re both going to be on the stage. If I think there’s a need for me to intervene, I will, but I would prefer not to.”

Wallace’s stance has led to some controversy before, the Huffington Post noted.

“On Sept. 4, Wallace said he didn’t intend to ‘truth squad‘ the nominees. Several journalists and media watchers took issue with that position, arguing it’s vital for the moderator to call out blatant lies. And Wallace’s plan could be more problematic than in past election cycles, given Republican nominee Donald Trump’s propensity for spouting falsehoods at an unprecedented rate.

Fact-checking has been a major difficulty through the first two debates, and the campaigns of both candidates have both accused the other of lying and offered their own outlets for fact-checking.

Viewers who tune into Wednesday night’s debate will likely see both Trump and Clinton challenging each other on stage about facts, as they have numerous times through the first two affairs.

But even if Chris Wallace wants to be a “time keeper,” as he called it, viewers will still have a few ways to find live fact-checking during the final presidential debate. One is the creation of a Duke University student who made a pop-up tool that will display fact-checks that had been previously published by PolitiFact.

There will be an editor who manually displays these fact-checks at appropriate times throughout the debate, Poynter noted.

“The fact-checks pop up relatively quickly after the candidate makes the claim,” noted Duke professor and PolitiFact founder Bill Adair in a blog post. “It is reminiscent of the VH1 show Pop Up Video, which provided sometimes irreverent annotation to rock videos in the 1990s.”

For those who may not remember, Pop Up Video was a show that included facts that popped up in bubbles during music videos, giving the viewer additional insight about the artists and songs.

There are other options for people looking for live fact-checking during the final presidential debate. NPR Politics is offering its own live-streaming fact-checks from the debate, which can be found be clicking here.

And Google News will be offering its own live fact-checking for the final debate, USA Today noted. The feature will appear as a tab with Google News results, with stories marked as “highly cited,” “in-depth” and “opinion.”It will also contain only sites ruled to be nonpartisan, and they must apply for the label.

“We’re excited to see the growth of the Fact Check community and to shine a light on its efforts to divine fact from fiction, wisdom from spin,” Google said in a blog post Friday.

Those interested in downloading the FactPopUp app and the Pop-Up Video-style live fact-checking for the final presidential debate can find it here.

[Featured Image by Andrew Harnik/AP Images]

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