So, the audience-less debate didn’t actually hurt Donald Trump. I guess the thought was to let Trump’s inaccuracy breathe and allow the voters to discover what is fact and what is false—but that’s putting a lot of faith in the voters. Then again, that’s where the post-debate commentary comes in: to make sense of what we just saw from facts to optics to insight. It’s simply that the moderator is supposed to contest points made since they have the numbers and notes in front of them. Failure to do that can reflect poorly on the moderator and the network hosting the debate.
