Stop Sunday 'Coffee Hour,' Start Fact-Checking

Sunday shows should put guests 'at a maximum disadvantage'
By Matt Cantor,  Newser Staff
Posted Dec 30, 2009 9:25 AM CST
Stop Sunday 'Coffee Hour,' Start Fact-Checking
In this photo provided by CBS, Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner appears on CBS's "Face the Nation" in Washington, Sunday, April 5, 2009.   (AP Photo/CBS Face the Nation, Karin Cooper)

How do we give Sunday morning shows some bite when they’d prefer to stick to the role of “amiable, risk-free coffee hour”? One media expert suggests a midweek online fact check of what was said over the weekend—but why wait ‘til Wednesday? asks Jason Linkins in the Huffington Post. Instead, Linkins suggests, have “a small army of fact-checkers” on the spot.

Instead of maintaining some “sporting” notion that guests and hosts “should be on equal footing,” the goal of such shows should be to put guests “at a maximum disadvantage,” Linkins writes. “At the very least, the producers of these shows should be capable of calling out anything that doesn't pass the ‘Look What You Can Find On Google Within Thirty Seconds Test.”
(More Sunday morning talk shows stories.)

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