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."
However, Senator Obama himself brushed the joke off saying that he "didn't take great offense" to it. Once again, the joke was actually directed at how President Bush might be oblivious to current events. In fact, one could imagine what a non-issue this would be if a liberal comedian delivered the joke more effectively. And apparently, there is no word yet on how much the president was offended by the joke that was in reality aimed at him.
Sadly, all of these reasons do not justify the Democrats unwillingness to embrace a venue that might give them a challenge. Instead, they will likely retreat to a more friendly setting where they will be thrown softball questions and undoubtedly reach less viewers — as Fox is the highest rated cable news network.
The Fox News Channel may very well carry a slight conservative bias, but every other source of news conveys at least the level of bias that Fox does to one side or the other. Right before the 2006 elections, CNN aired a week long series entitled "Broken Government." Without question, the series was intended to display how much a Republican Congress and Administration were screwing up America. And MSNBC, to counter the likes of Brit Hume and Bill O'Reilly on Fox, has liberal anchors such as Chris Matthews and Keith Olbermann run opposite them.
In the past, there were no conservative outlets for acquiring information. So, the idea that Fox News is an extreme news provider while the rest are innocent of any wrongdoing, clearly comes down to a disdain and hatred by liberals that there are now alternative sources of information. Prior to the Internet, talk radio and the Fox News Channel, Americans had few choices as to where they would learn about current events. Now, a person can choose to get his news from millions of sources from an array of perspectives — and that is undeniably a much healthier system.
So, when the Democrats pulled the plug on their debate on Fox News, they not only reacted haphazardly, they alienated a different bloc of voters to whom they might not otherwise be able to reach. As a matter of fact, the Democrats alienated the largest cable news audience in the United States — and all because of the extreme idea that Fox is more biased than CNN or MSNBC. If the Republicans would ever nix a debate on another network citing a liberal bias, it would more than likely not be taken as easily.