Before, during and after the first presidential debate, reporters from the New York Times live-blogged the events at the University of Denver starting at 4 p.m. Eastern Daylight Time.
The Times’ live blogs feel very polished. Almost too polished to actually be called a blog. They even embed charts and graphics in and sometimes, photos taken that night.
One of the nicest features for someone looking back on the debate is something I haven’t seen anywhere else: five links to “highlights” at the top of the page. It’s a very simple technique, but it helps people who want to look back on it.
The secret does not appear to be reusing material from before, like Politifact did on the night of the debate. Some research and background information might have been prepared, however. Part of the key is staffing: 15 separate reporters posted on the blog, not counting the six photographers or the seven reporters whose tweets were included.
One thing I liked was the focus on fact-checking. The blog allows you to click a tab at the top and filter out everything but posts auditing the two candidates’ claims. The Times does not use any kind of rating system for claims — like the Truth-O-Meter — but I thought the posts made the actual facts of the matter quite clear.
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