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Last Friday, the Democratic Party decided to cancel a presidential primary debate on the Fox News Channel set for August in Nevada. Apparently, they were too afraid of enraging the far left wing of the party to associate themselves with the so-called "conservative" network. In addition, some of the Democratic presidential candidates are taking advantage of the situation to boost their campaign war chests and their popularity.
Recently, MoveOn.org developed a petition stating that Fox News is a "mouthpiece for the Republican Party, not a legitimate news channel." In fact, the organization claims that it has collected over 260,000 signatures to support the idea of pulling out of the Fox debate. Seemingly, this was the event that spawned the firestorm throughout the Democratic Party and eventually convinced the Nevada leadership to cancel the debate.
After hearing of the concern of www.MoveOn.org, presidential candidate John Edwards jumped on the opportunity to appease that part of the Democratic base. One day before the cancellation, Edwards decided to skip the debate himself citing scheduling conflicts but also specifying the host network as a reason. In an official statement, the Edwards campaign explained that "there were a number of factors, and Fox was one of those." Surprisingly, the next day, the party called off the debate.
In an attempt to further justify the cowardly move, the Nevada Democrat Party — along with Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid of the same state — mentioned comments made by Fox News' Chairman and CEO Roger Ailes as yet another reason for the pullout. Last week, the network chief attempted to make a crack at President Bush at a Radio and Television News Directors Association Foundation event. Joking about Bush's alleged lack of intelligence, Ailes said that "it is true that Barack Obama is on the move. I don't know if it's true that President Bush called (Pakistani President Pervez) Musharraf and said, 'Why can't we catch this guy?'" After that comment Thursday, the Nevada Democratic Party stated in a letter that "we cannot, as good Democrats, put our party in a position to defend such comments" and that withdrawing from the debate "is the only course of action."
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