There’s already been hints from NBC News that Lester Holt, the moderator for the first presidential debate between Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton, will not be fact checking the candidates. This, of course, will allow Trump to say anything he pleases without being held accountable – except by Hillary Clinton.

But to make matters worse, all cable news networks (including those critical of Trump) are pledging to be completely spineless, and will not offer any on-screen fact checks to any comments made by the candidates that are wrong:

While on-screen fact-checking could help expose inaccurate or misleading assertions without interrupting the flow of the debate, nearly all of the major cable or broadcast networks, including Univision and Telemundo, said that they would not use any sort on screen fact check or graphics …. Thus, the burden of keeping the candidates honest will likely come down to Holt, the only other person on the stage.

After Politico documented that Trump lies on average every three-and-a-half minutes, one would think a fact checking process would be paramount to an honest, open debate on the issues. But sadly, the media, realizing their ratings are on the line, would rather kowtow to Donald Trump and his band of deplorable surrogates.

The Clinton campaign has been forceful in its effort to hold Trump accountable, with Clinton Campaign Communications Director Jennifer Palmieri telling reporters:

For the moderator to let lies like that that come out of his mouth at this debate to go unchallenged would give Donald Trump an unfair advantage. We do believe it is the role of the moderator … to call out those lies and to do that in real time.

Unfortunately, with Trump’s impending lies already on the brink of not being checked for falsehoods, it’s somehow up to Hillary Clinton to “shine” at the debate if she hopes to “win.” This double standard that the most qualified woman to every run for office has to go above and beyond that most unqualified nominee in history, just to look slightly better than him, is abhorrent.

Hopefully, Clinton will wipe the floor with Trump on the first debate, but with no one to back her up, it may be hard convincing the American people that she did it.

If there is one thing this election has shown us, it’s that journalism is dying, if not already dead.

Featured image via Sara D. Davis/Getty Images