Ragebait.
People are more likely to correct someone else on incorrect information or call them out on low effort content because it satisfies an innate human need for validation.
In this case validating one’s own intelligence. People like to feel smart and the easiest way to achieve that feeling is to make someone else look less smart.
As much as those networks helped him by ignoring half of what he said and going over everything Harris said with a fine-toothed-comb, it’s kind of funny watching it bite them in the ass.
If they would have shown how weird he really is paired to Harris they wouldn’t be in this mess right now.
But they just couldn’t resist the ratings generated by normalizing him and keeping the race tight.
Now they’re going to lose more than they gained from that ratings spike.