Dan Rather did a lot of things wrong when he was a network news anchor.

He did a lot of things right, though.

One of the things he did right was he declined to use the word “debate” to describe the events featuring two or more candidates running for the same office. His view is that they weren’t debates as most of us understand the meaning of the term.

He called them “joint appearances.” Which is what the event Thursday turned out to be with 10 top-tier Republican presidential candidates fielding questions from a Fox News Channel panel of journalists. Seven more second-tier candidates took part in an earlier event.

The term “debate” has been misused, therefore, in this context.

I think I’ll adopt the Rather model and refer to future joint appearances as what they are … and they are not debates.