Moderator or Prosecutor

   Matt Lauer of NBC was criticized intensely for not pushing Donald Trump when the GOP candidate failed to answer direct questions during a televised forum.
   But what, after all, is the duty of an interviewer -- whether print or broadcast -- when the person being interviewed waltzes around a question, or segues to a different topic, or blurts out assertions that are blatantly false?
   Reporters are not lawyers, although many do have a legal background. A reporter's job is to ask questions and record the answers, as part of the journalistic duty to probe for truth and facts. Granted, some reporters are quite aggressive in their questioning of interview subjects, often to the point of being obnoxious. Others are not aggressive enough, and effectively give a free forum for the candidate's views, no matter how outrageous.
   In addition, live television is limited in the amount of time available, while print journalists less so.
   As it was, during the NBC forum this week, Trump bypassed many questions, ignored others, and repeated assertions that have been proven false many times in the past. Should Lauer have called out the candidate on these issues, and insisted that Trump answer the question posed, as well as firmly reminding the candidate -- and the viewing public -- that repeating proven falsehoods is not appropriate from a candidate for the Presidency of the United States?
   Put another way, was Lauer's job to be an interviewer and moderator in a public forum, or to be a prosecutor in a court of law?

   In the first half of the hour-long forum, Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton was the subject of the interview, and Lauer has been criticized for being too harsh with her, pushing too hard on issues that critics claim are less important than what many call the outrageous lies perpetrated by Trump.

   Here's another view. If journalists are criticized by both sides, maybe they're doing their job right.
   Still another question: Does Matt Lauer qualify as a journalist, or is he a just television personality?
   Moreover, would the political teams accept a well qualified journalist as the moderator-interviewer for such a forum or debate?
   In a few weeks, a full debate between the two candidates is scheduled, with Chris Wallace of Fox News as the moderator. Wallace has spent his career as a journalist, following a family tradition set by his father, Mike Wallace, formerly with CBS News.
   Will Chris Wallace be a weak or strong moderator, or will he become a prosecutor?
   Stay tuned.