For Democrats, Debate on Fox Reveals Divide
That’s the headline at the New York Times :
Four years ago, the leaders of the Congressional Black Caucus began looking for a television outlet to co-sponsor and broadcast a presidential debate to address the concerns of minority voters.
Only one news channel made an acceptable proposal, and an unlikely channel at that: Fox News, in what some Democrats viewed as an effort to associate itself with a group that could help it make good on its claim of presenting “fair and balanced” news coverage.
But now that relationship is being shaken by the decision of Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York, Senator Barack Obama of Illinois, and former Senator John Edwards of North Carolina to shun the debate, a move that has exposed fault lines among two major constituencies of the Democratic Party. While the withdrawal by the candidates frustrated members of the black caucus, it mollified liberals who had objected to the involvement of Fox News, whose programming includes some of the most conservative and pro-Republican commentary on the air.
So, what is the divide? Who want to participate and who do not? Well, lets start with the Democratic candidates who do want to participate in the debate at Fox: Joe Biden and…
That’s it. Joe Biden is the only Democratic candidate who has explicitly said that he will not withdraw from the debate. All the other candidates have either said that they will not appear on Fox, or have remained silent about the matter.
That’s going to be a great debate: “what do you think of this… let me see, Senator Biden?” “Well, here is what I think…” “Do you agree with that Senator Biden? “I think that my distinguished colleague said it marvelously, I agree completely. What a candidate! “
It’s Biden dream debate.
Biden can use the media exposure to get a jump on the competition, with none of those pesky 90 second time limits, lol. He can expound and expound and in his own words “be the very best Biden I can be”. I’m not surprised he accepted!
Is Biden the point of the post ?This is the Dems afraid of real questions and an audience that will listen with discerning ears. This is about the dems taking the black(s) and the vote for granted. The dems thumb their noses at an element of their base but the story is..Fox is evil. Give me a break.
No its not. Its the Dems deciding that debates in other venues- CNN, Msnbc etc will portray their positions in a less biased manner.
FNC has proven itself to be a mouthpiece for the administration and the RNC. It hires weak, mealy-mouthed liberals like Alan Colmes so that it can appear nominally “Fair and Balanced” yet it reports false stories about Obama being schooled in a madrassa. It would be like holding the GOP debates on Air America.
So you’ll concede that the GOP withstanding the idiocy of Chris Mathews in the opening debate makes them a better party and better players in the diverse arena of democracy….Now that you’ve picked yourself up of the floor… Seriously. Isn’t it a little disingenuous of a major party to pick a debate. It defeats the concept of open democracy.
Honestly, I don’t see MSNBC as being the liberal equivalent of Fox. Matthews is no Hannity -he spent the entire episode of Hardball friday pillorying Hillary Clinton and gossiping about her arranged political marriage. He gave the authors of two unflattering new books about her plenty of coverage. Matthews also has said many postive things about McCain and Giuliani, but has given real mavericks like Ron Paul zero coverage.
I don’t think our democracy is in any danger because the Democrats don’t want to hold their debates on Fox. Cheney, Rove, Rumsfeld and Rice never come on MSNBC either-but do we say they’re cowards for that decision? Or antidemocratic? Its a minor thing that’s played up a lot by the right. But if Fox wants to attract both sides, they should hide their bias a little more.
I’ll close with thanks for the discussion and thanks to Michael also. Enjoy the rest of the weekend Kritter.
I heard someone say.
“Gee if the Democrats are afraid of Brit Hume, I wonder what they think of Bin Laden?”
I heard Hillary Say
“Lets Talk to our Enemies. Get to know them. If Im gonna have to deal with them then I want to know as much about them as I can.”
I would think this holds true for Fox. Or is the above sentence just appeasing her antiwar, I want to talk base?
I think the Democrats are amazingly childish over this. I for one realize that Fox is decidedly slanted to the right.
SO?
If the democrats dislike that so much. This is America. Start the SHEEP broadcasting Network then you can have your view espoused as well.
Or mabey:
the HENHOUSE broadcasting network.
Then they could claim their is a Fox in the HENHOUSE>
“Lets Talk to our Enemies. Get to know them. If Im gonna have to deal with them then I want to know as much about them as I can.”
I would think this holds true for Fox. ”
lthomas- The Democrats already know more than they would ever want or need to about Bill’o, Hannity and Hume, lol. It would be more an exercise in futility than in diplomacy. They know that whatever is said in the debate will provide fodder for the right wing pundits to smear them in the months to come.
They have a pretty good chance of retaking the WH, thanks to W’s serial screw-ups so there’s no reason to put themselves in harm’s way.
The Fox viewers aren’t going to be voting (D) anyway.
Exactomundo
So, Kim, since you’ve in the past stated that we should talk to Amadenijhad, aren’t you thus saying that you think he’s a more reasonable guy than are the Fox broadcasters?? LOL