Janet Brown, executive director of the Commission on Presidential Debates, the committee responsible for the debates, told CNN's Brian Stelter she does not think it is a "good idea" for the moderator to face check candidates.



"I don't think it's a good idea to get the moderator into essentially serving as the Encyclopedia Britannica," Brown said on Sunday's Reliable Sources. "I think, personally, if you are starting to get into the fact-check, I’m not sure what is the big fact, and what is a little fact?"





BRIAN STELTER, CNN: What about the issue of fact checking that has been talked about so much in the past few weeks? Does the commission want Lester Holt to fact check?



JANET BROWN: The commission asks independent, smart journalists to be the moderators and we let them decide how they’re going to do this. But I have to say, in our history, the moderators have found it appropriate to allow the candidates to be the ones that talk about the accuracy or the fairness of what the other candidate or candidates might have said.



I think, personally, if you are starting to get into the fact-check, I’m not sure what is the big fact, and what is a little fact? And if you and I information, does your source about the unemployment rate agree with my source?



I don't think it’s a good idea to get the moderator into essentially serving as the Encyclopedia Britannica. And I think it’s better for that person to facilitate and to depend on the candidates to basically correct each other as they see fit.