The Breakfast Meeting: Debate Moderators in Spotlight, and Testing Green Marketing

By BILL BRINK

The referees are under the spotlight again, and this time not on the football field. As the first presidential debate approaches Wednesday night, the moderators have inevitably become part of the story, Jeremy Peters writes in The Times, as they get caught up in the partisan give-and-take that characterizes the campaigns. A role that once stood as a crowning journalistic achievement has become more scrutinized and stressful than ever. “Mind you, every morning I wake up, I want to throw up thinking about it,” said CNN's Candy Crowley, who will moderate a debate on Oct. 16.

• In The Daily, Daniel Libit writes that “if this is the ‘Twitter election,' then tomorrow's debate could really be where America is won or lost.'' Twitter, he says, may be the echo chamber that decides who is the winner and loser.
• In Massachusetts, Senator Scott P. Brown and his Democratic opponent, Elizabeth Warren, had another contentious debate. “Both scored points and made blunders,'' Katherine Q. Seelye writes in The Times, and Mr. Brown drew some boos from the audience when he identified Justice Antonin Scalia as his “model'' Supreme Court justice, prompting him to quickly throw out several other names, including Justice Sonia Sotomayor from the court's more liberal wing.

In Washington, Edward Wyatt reports, the Federal Trade Commission tackled the issue of so-called green marketing, saying that companies claiming their products are good for the environment had to have supporting data. The commission said substantially more companies were using this marketing strategy while the claims themselves had become more ambiguous.

An undated video clip on a Web site that supports the Syrian government appears to show Austin Tice, an American freelance journalist, to be alive and being held hostage by Islamist militants, David D. Kilpatrick reports in The Times. It was the first glimpse of Mr . Tice since Aug. 13, but there are questions about the origin of the clip that raise doubts about its authenticity. Some analysts believe it might have been staged to try to discredit the armed opposition, Robert Mackey reported in The Lede blog.

OWN, the cable network started by Oprah Winfrey that has struggled to attract an audience, has made a big programming bet by signing Tyler Perry to produce new shows, Brian Stelter writes. It's an exclusive arrangement between Ms. Winfrey and Mr. Perry, the prolific television producer behind sitcoms like “House of Payne.” The network said that it would introduce two new scripted series made by Mr. Perry sometime in mid-2013 and that OWN would become the “singular destination'' for his new series and projects.

Four young memoirists, Dwight Garner writes, have decided to write books about hunting, for various personal reasons, including, he says, the desire to thoughtfully stare their protein in the face.

Can nice guys avoid finishing last in the hypercompetitive environment of Hollywood? Jordan Roberts has managed to find a way, Brooks Barnes writes. A longtime, respected script doctor, he has directed and self-financed a new movie with an unusual name - “3,2,1 … Frankie Go Boom'' - that will get a limited run in theaters starting later this month.