The Real Hot Seat
Posted on February 17, 2017
If I were a TV host interviewing a politician, I’d have running totals at the bottom of the screen, giving numbers of: evasions; mainly truthful straight answers; straight answers that were misleading or direct lies or falsehoods; and evasive lies not responsive to a question.
A shrewd interviewer could make those calls as the conversation progresses, sentence by sentence, (or have a co-anchor do so). He would also need a cutoff switch for the interviewee’s mike. There could be a running transcript showing the most recent statements as they are being weighed. The host could have an expert group checking out lies in the background. When the guest gets a fact wrong, he could be given a chance to back down. There could also be a post-appearance challenge procedure.
Another segment could be “empty statements,” where the guest made a general or overbroad statement he could not give facts to support.
Call the program something like “the Real Hot Seat” and dare politicians and talking heads to appear on it.
Granted that many right-wingers currently in office would rarely appear on a such a show. That may give it the perception of partisan–unless you view science and objective journalism as per se partisan.