Debate moderators want to be 'invisible'

MILWAUKEE — The Republican presidential candidates aren't the only ones under pressure during Tuesday's debate.

The moderators asking the questions will also be coming under intense scrutiny.

Two weeks after GOP candidates and their allies criticized the moderators of a debate in Boulder, Colo., questioners at the rematch in Milwaukee will try to avoid becoming issues themselves.

"My view on moderators is that we should be invisible," said Neil Cavuto, a Fox Business Network anchor and one of three panelists for the prime-time debate at the Milwaukee Theatre..

"Our questions should generate debate," Cavuto said. "But the tone of the questions should not."

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After the Oct. 28 debate — sponsored by CNBC, a Fox Business Network rival — some Republicans claimed that the moderators asked biased and needlessly provocative questions. Ted Cruz accused the panel of seeking a "cage match" in which the GOP candidates would simply attack each other.

Sitting in the lobby of the Milwaukee Theater, Cavuto said the last group of moderators asked good questions but questioned "the tone" of some of them.

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This time around, Cavuto said he and his colleagues are looking for specific questions that would deny the candidates "wiggle room" to revert back to stump speeches.

While "we all want to make sure that we get answers to our questions," Cavuto said he is subscribing to the approach of Sgt. Joe Friday on the old Dragnet television series: "Just stick to the facts ... Just the facts, ma'am."

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One other thing to expect Tuesday: criticism of the questioners. It comes with the territory, Cavuto said.

For one thing, he said, the number of candidates makes it tough to manage the flow of the debate. There will be eight GOP hopefuls in Tuesday's prime-time debate, while previous GOP events featured as many as 11.

There's also what Cavuto described as a tough and negative political environment.

"The pressure is always on," Cavuto said. "I don't ever remember a time when things have been this divisive, on both the right and the left."

Fox Business Network and The Wall Street Journal are sponsoring the debate, which will focus on economic issues. Cavuto said other related issues will likely surface, though he declined to be specific.

"I think anything and everything that you would think of could pop up," he said.

Joining Cavuto on the moderating panel are Maria Bartiromo, also an anchor at the Fox Business Network, and Gerard Baker, editor-in-chief of The Wall Street Journal. A preliminary debate with low polling candidates will also have three moderators: FBN anchors Trish Regan and Sandra Smith, as well as Gerald Seib of The Journal.

Debate moderator, at any level, has never been an easy gig, analysts said. They are frequently accused of being too hard or too soft on the candidates, too snarky or too deferential.

Alan Schroeder, author of Presidential Debates: Fifty Years of High-Risk TV, said moderators have two basic and challenging tasks.

One is fact-checking the candidates — no easy task when "you've got candidates making assertions that are in conflict with reality," he said.

He said moderators must also cope with the nearly inevitable accusations of media bias.

Schroeder, a journalism professor at Northeastern University, questioned whether moderators should encourage candidates to attack each other, calling that something of a debate cliché. The main thing, he said: "Stick to the facts, stick to the topics you are comfortable with as a journalist."

Cavuto said some people are going to critique the questioners, regardless of what happens.

That includes the candidates themselves, he noted. The closer they get to the Iowa caucuses and the New Hampshire primary, the more some contenders — especially the marginal ones — will be willing to attack their treatment at the various debates.

"They would lash out at Mother Teresa if she was on the panel," Cavuto said.

Voters themselves will simply call the debate as they see it.

"The haters will be haters," Cavuto said. "Those who love will love us."

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