That's good for the Republicans, bad for the Democrats. The original idea of the Nevada debate was to appeal to swing voters in the western states; here is what Harry Reid said when the debate was first announced:
This is more great news for Nevada. I'm happy FOX News will be a partner for the August presidential debate. Western issues will be a major focus of this debate in particular. With FOX News as our partner, candidates will have an opportunity to not only speak to Nevada voters, but voters across the West who will be instrumental to electing a Democratic president in 2008.It was, in fact, a good idea, but now Reid is backpedaling along with the others.
I was struck by this paragraph in the Politico story linked above:
FOX News Chairman and CEO Roger Ailes gave the progressive activists more ammunition on Thursday when he jokingly compared Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama, the junior senator from Illinois, to Osama bin Laden.I doubted whether Ailes had really "compared" Obama to Osama, so I followed the link. Here is the reference; it comes from a speech by Ailes in which he accepted, somewhat ironically, a First Amendment award:
It is true that I said Britney Spears looked great at the Academy Awards. and I later found out it was Jack Nicholson. [Laughter/ooohs]Two things are immediately obvious. First, the Obama reference was a joke. Second, the joke was on President Bush. The idea that this somehow furnished ammunition that helped the nutroots get their way is ridiculous. The moral of the story is that Democratic office-holders are so gun-shy that they are afraid to stand up to their party's lunatic fringe. If you want to see what Democratic politicians really think about the nutroots, check out this video of veteran Democratic Congressman David Obey trying to explain reality to some antiwar activists, whom he calls "liberal idiots."
It is true that just in the last two weeks Hillary Clinton has had over 200 phone calls telling her in order to win the presidency she must stay on the road for the next two years. It is not true they were all from Bill. [Laughter]
And it is true that Barack Obama is on the move. I don't know if it's true that President Bush called Musharraf and said, 'Why can't we catch this guy?' [Laughter]
I feel compelled, however -- on a serious note -- to say a few words.
Reader Comments ( Page 1 of 1)
1. Bush/Cheney have a little less than two years to wrap up the Iraq adventure. Congress can do very little about it, even with all the hard work the war moms are doing patrolling the capitol.
Steve Bonomo at 12:16AM on Mar 10th 2007
2. How can people take any Dem seriously if they wont stand up to a news organization? NOt by running away, but by heading into the lions den to answer the uncomfortable questions. If the Repub's boycott CNN, this country is in deep trouble. We are no longer one and perhaps a split will become inevitable, along with the wars that will occur.
jack at 10:00AM on Mar 10th 2007
3. This is just part of the continued persecution and politics of destruction aimed at Fox News. They think that if they knock Fox news enough, through their Hollywood people, their media people, etc they will tear down the respect that Fox has gained and make them less of a factor in the election cycle. Cancelling Fox is just another avenue to impugn the FOX reputation. These Democrats are truly detestable people, but it is PART OF THEIR PLAN.
Bette S at 10:11AM on Mar 10th 2007
4. Fox Bashes Obama from: http://www.solidpolitics.com
"Fox News has a recent history of bashing Democratic Presidential candidate Barack Obama and earlier this week its television personalities defended Ann Coulter's slur against John Edwards. Just a small taste of Fox News' takes on Obama and Coulter:"
Bill at 11:00AM on Mar 10th 2007
5. If the dems can't stand up to the nutroots how are they going to stand up to al Qaeda, North Korea, and Iran???
Capitalist Infidel at 11:14AM on Mar 10th 2007
6. Of course there is the argument that Fox News is very biased toward the right wing and thus not a real news agency and not worth dealing with. Though this is a bunch of hogwash; I'll admit it tends to have more conservative anchors and this is expressed in the late evenings (with people like O'Reilly) but I think their news reporting is very good over all. I think they have the best 6 o'clock news by far; and this is from a guy who prefers CNN a lot of the time.
The democrats are making a big mistake in doing this because it was their chance to reach the middle/conservative part of the country that watches Fox.
Wesley T at 11:24AM on Mar 10th 2007
7. Should republican candidates in turn boycott CBS, NBC and ABC as being too liberal?
Oh well - - these guys are staking out what promises to be an extremely ugly campaign season. The good news is Fox can take some serious shots at the Dems without fear of them clamoring to come on O'Reilly or Hannity to vent their spleens.
I think what is happening is everybody realizes that its a tad early to be running for president - - and too early to run the risk of stepping into their own mess kits, which a debate on any TV network would pose risk of.
ken at 2:55PM on Mar 10th 2007
8. The Fox reputation? Please. While the rest of the media is no better, saying that Fox is a step above them is ridiculous. While it's true that a majority of the media seems to lean to the left, Fox does the same thing only they lean to the right. Same bias, same limitation of opposing points of view, same everything just from the other side of the political fence.
Nate Parello at 8:41PM on Mar 10th 2007
9. Fox can use this big time for publicity which could benefit them and the GOP.
For example, they could make a big show of asking all Dem politicians if they want to be mentioned in any of Fox's bulletins because they do not want to upset the sensitive wee souls by giving them unwanted publiciity. That alone could put a few foxes among a lot of chickens.
Andrew Davies at 11:16PM on Mar 10th 2007
10.
This was a very stupid move by the Democrats, that's clear enough. Obviously that was a joke on Bush, not an attempt to slander Obama.
Plus, it was CNN who first confused Osama and Obama, although they claimed it was unintentional (yeah, like nobody reads their clip captions before airing them).
It will only push Fox farther right if voices from the left neglect to let their side of the story be heard on that channel.
Peter2 at 11:46PM on Mar 10th 2007
11. Where Fox is in the political spectrum shouldn't matter, just as where the politics of CNN/CBS/PBS/ABC/NBC as well as the Washington Post and NY Times are shouldn't matter. Haven't "journalists" told us that for years?
Where are they? Americans for Democratic Action, a left wing organization, ranks news organizations by how many politicians of what ilk quote them.
ADA ranks FOX as left of Republicans, right of Democrats, but very close to the center (50th percentile). Not a bad place to be.
donmeaker at 1:02AM on Mar 11th 2007
12. There are more liberals on Fox News then there are conservatives at CNN, MSNBC, ABC, CBS, PBS, NBC, NPR, Washington Post, NY Times, LA Times, Time Magazine, Newsweek Magazine, - combined!
What the Left is trying to do to Fox is what the U.N. does to Israel - make them a pariah.
Scipio at 9:35AM on Mar 11th 2007