Heather Cox Richardson makes the same point I raised

[misanthrope]

I’m a teacher. I would never in a million years let a classroom turn into this.— Heather Cox Richardson (TDPR) (@HC_Richardson) September 30, 2020

Teachers all across this nation have faced this before and done so in better fashion than Chris Wallace.


EDIT TO ADD:
Her suggestions for what Wallace could have done.


Heather Cox Richardson (TDPR)
@HC_Richardson
·
16h
Cut his mic. Stop the debate until he shuts up. Give Biden back every minute that he takes, while calmly explaining to the audience what I'm doing. Tell Trump to leave the stage if he won't follow the rules. Call security if he won't. There are lots of good options.

[Stallion]

1. More People Would Watch if they Had a "Time Out Box"--probably Should make him Wear Dunce Cap Too

[JHB]

2. Dunking tank. Talk when it's not your time...

Sploosh!

[apnu]

3. Wallace can't do that.

He's a guy in the chair on TV with a clock and asks questions. He has no controls over mics or anything else. The producer of the show in the control room for the venue, they can do that. They can talk in Wallace's ear, perhaps he can signal them in some way, but he's not in control of anything in that room.

[PatSeg]

4. This is true

He also had to abide by the preset rules of the debate. I am quite sure he would have loved to cut off Trump's mic, but he was limited to what he could do. Also he wasn't dealing with an unruly grade school student, the problem child was the president of the United States.

[misanthrope]

5. Understood and I partially agree

however, could Wallace not have called a halt to the melee and appealed to someone who was actually in charge (the producer)?

[apnu]

8. Yes. that's what I was saying

Wallace has no actual power there, except maybe to tell Trump to cool it and give Biden fair time. Productions like that are put on by a team of people, of which the talking head is definitely not the one in charge.

In Paddy Chayefsky's Network, the character Howard Beale, shocks everybody because he took control of the broadcast. That's an option Chris Wallace has but never used it.

Wallace is no ranting Howard Beale. He's the Beale at the end after Arthur Jensen works him over. A full corporate boot-licker, unable to have any thoughts of his own anymore.

The very notion that Wallace could have stood up and shut the production down, in a Howard Beale tirade never entered his head. Wallace froze, his production team froze, that's what happened.

(start at 1:41 if the link below doesn't)

?t=101

[Hamer555]

6. Great ideas. Don't change the rules because the baby refuses to follow them.

Make following the rules a requirement for participation......you know, just like everything else in life.

[dalton99a]

7. The problem is he knows nobody can touch him or physically remove him from the stage

The Secret Service works for him.