Should procedure trump truth?

It is interesting that Ms. Bertrand focused on process not substance in her Sept. 23 letter to the editor “Bias is clear.” She is correct that former President Trump was fact checked and Vice President Harris was not fact checked in the recent presidential debate. Could it have anything to do with the content of their respective statements?

A couple of examples illustrate the issue. Mr. Trump asserted, among other things, that Democrats support abortion after birth (which is murder and illegal in all 50 states). Clearly the moderators could not allow that to stand.

He also asserted that illegal (which they are not) Haitians invaded Springfield (which they did not, because they were “invited” there to alleviate the town’s labor shortage) are eating residents’ pets (which has been declared untrue by Ohio Gov. DeWine and Springfield Mayor Rue). This has not deterred Mr. Trump and Mr. Vance from repeating this untruth during and after the debate.

In normal times, such assertions would rarely, if ever, be made in a presidential debate. In the rare event that such a point was made, no one would have to fact check this assertion because everyone would realize the errant nonsense of the remarks. But these are not normal times. Former President Trump, who told over 30,000 lies in his four-year term, still has about half of the electorate believing him. So, fact check we must, because clearly many Americans have trouble discerning truth from lies and need help understanding why it is important for politicians to be held to the truth.

Perhaps Ms. Bertrand can enlighten us with an example of the egregious false statements made by Vice President Harris during the debate that would be worthy of a fact check.

Lynn Jensen

Arlington Heights