For Lester Holt, it's debate glory -- or torture on Twitter

Lester Holt’s gig at Hofstra University Monday evening won't be his first rodeo as a presidential debate moderator.

When the NBC Nightly News anchor co-hosted a Democratic primary debate in January with NBC colleague Andrea Mitchell, he mostly stuck to the conventional script. He read pre-written questions from postcards. He interrupted candidates when they went on too long. With the candidates mostly agreeing on issues, it was largely a softball affair.

The stakes are about to get a lot higher for the 57-year old broadcaster Monday night as he moderates the general election season’s first debate between Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton and her Republican rival, Donald Trump.

“This is the biggest stage he’s been on his entire life,” says Andrew Tyndall, the media analyst who specializes in network news and publishes The Tyndall Report. “This is a glorious opportunity for him."

In a presidential race singularly arresting and historic, not to say bitterly contentious, the first female nominee of a major party, who prefers to speak in long-winded, careful paragraphs, squares off against a blunt reality-TV star with a penchant for personal insults.

And as if the stakes needed to be raised, there is an added complication: After Matt Lauer's widely ridiculed performance interviewing the contenders for NBC's Commander-in-Chief Forum earlier this month, there is growing pressure on debate moderators to act as fact-checkers and challenge candidates on their false assertions.

Matt Lauer gets rough reviews after candidate forum

Holt’s job will be made somewhat easier by the format, in which the candidates largely will hold each other accountable for their opponents’ answers. The candidates will be asked to provide two-minute answers to questions posed by Holt and will be given additional time to respond to each other.

Still, raw personal enmity will likely emerge. Evasive answers are inevitable. Untruths and constitutionally questionable proposals are widely expected. And it will largely be up to Holt to keep the show moving and substantive without becoming a run-over afterthought who’s ridiculed on Twitter.

“The best thing that can happen, from his point of view, is that we’re not talking that much about him,” says Betsy West, a journalism professor at Columbia University and former senior vice president at CBS News.

Rieder: Moderators must challenge debate falsehoods

A solid performance could cement Holt's reputation among media critics and industry peers, who are still sizing him up after his formal ascension at NBC 15 months ago. The former NBC correspondent was named the Nightly News anchor in June, 2015 after subbing for Brian Williams for four months. Williams, now an anchor at MSNBC, was removed from the job after lying about his experience in covering the Iraq War.

“The rap on (Holt) is that he’s more of an announcer than a newsman, an accidental anchor,” says Mark Feldstein, a professor of journalism at the University of Maryland and a former correspondent at ABC News. “So he needs to show command of issues.”

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The reviews for Holt’s performance in the NBC anchor chair have been generally positive. He’s helped maintain NBC’s lead in the evening broadcast news ratings. NBC is quick to point out the major stories he’s anchored from global hot spots since his promotion.

“He’s good in crisis," West says. "He’s calm, measured and deliberate. He has that kind of anchor temperament in a news breaking situation that makes it easy to watch.”

But Holt is also walking onto the stage at Hofstra at a time when the American electorate, seemingly more polarized than ever and galvanized by social media's urgent cries, is hypersensitive to perceived bias. Any misstep by Holt will trigger comparisons to Lauer.

“Debates are a challenge under the best of circumstances, Feidstein says. “This year, you have one debater who colors in the margins guardedly, and one who likes to rip up the playbook.”

A sure way to invite criticism is for Holt is to remain passive, Feldstein says. Candidates should be pinned down when they’re evasive and ignore questions. “And call them out when they tell lies,” he says.

Rieder: Moderators must challenge debate falsehoods

Another danger, Feldstein says, is to fall into the trap of “false equivalence” that he believes has colored much of the election coverage. The level of Holt’s follow-ups and corrections should correspond to the candidate’s transgressions. NBC is “going to be accused of bias anyway. But you don’t want to get into the Matt Lauer thing,” Feldstein says. “Lauer did make himself a laughingstock in the eyes of national journalists.”

With Trump’s tendency to fall back on hyperbole and personal guarantees, Holt would be “making a courageous journalistic decision” if he pushed back aggressively, Tyndall says. “If rules get in the way of clarity, then he has to put the needs of clarity over the needs of rules.”

It’ll be a particularly tricky challenge for Holt because he now presents himself as a neutral referee, while NBC News’ coverage has been clearly paying more attention to Trump than Clinton, Tyndall says. From the beginning of the year to Labor Day, NBC News has devoted 288 minutes of coverage to Trump vs. 93 minutes to Hillary Clinton. While other networks have also spent more time on Trump, the difference is the greatest for NBC, he says.

“His newscast made an explicit decision that Trump gets more attention and deserves more attention than Clinton,” Tyndall says, adding that the tilted coverage is justifiable, given Trump’s boastful declarations, impetuous policy proposals and insults.

Rieder: Scrutiny of Clinton more important than ever

Holt “spends eight months saying they’re asymmetrical. And because of the debate format, he now has to tell viewers that they are equal. He’s got to do a 180-degree turn,” Tyndall says.

While Holt is not the first African-American journalist to moderate a presidential debate, his race is another notable variable in a debate that will likely address questions of diversity, immigration, police violence and Muslims in America. “It will be powerful to have an African American man posing the questions and moderating the discussion,” West says.

And he'll be just a few feet away from the man with naked appeal to white nativism.

"Time is ripe," says Feldstein, "for a Murrow moment, a Cronkite moment."

Follow USA TODAY media reporter Roger Yu on Twitter @ByRogerYu.