Fox News’ Wallace whines about Dems avoiding him

December 11, 2007

Chris Wallace, host of “Fox News Sunday,” can’t help but notice that Democratic presidential candidates are disinclined to accept his invitations to appear on the air. And because they aren’t “playing ball” with him, Wallace has decided to whine incessantly.

“I think the Democrats are damn fools [for] not coming on Fox News,” Wallace said. “And my guess is that once you get a nominee, they probably will come on, because they know that we get a lot of voters they are going to need if they are going to win the election.”

Actually, my guess is the opposite. Dems have a pretty sharp field of presidential candidates, and I suspect they know that Fox News is a partisan network watched by Republican loyalists. These aren’t the voters Dems are “going to need”; these are the voters Dems can’t win over under any circumstances. (In 2004, the most reliable indicator of Republican allegiance wasn’t NRA membership or evangelical church attendance — it was Fox News viewership.)

Of course, Wallace was just getting started.

“Just imagine if the Republicans, under pressure from right-to-life groups, refused to appear on CNN or MSNBC,” Wallace said. “I think there would be holy unshirted hell. I think there would be such talk about these people being captives of the extreme right wing and why are they afraid to answer questions. And I think the absence of that is very telling.

“At this point, it has become kind of a loyalty test inside the Democratic Party … pandering to the far-left-wing,” Wallace added. “And we live with it.”

And to think, Democratic presidential candidates are loath to sit down for a chat with this guy. I can’t imagine why that is.

It’s also probably worth remembering that there are four main Sunday-morning public affairs shows: “Fox News Sunday,” ABC’s “This Week,” CBS’s “Face the Nation,” and NBC’s “Meet the Press.” Nationally, “Fox News Sunday” is dead last in the ratings. (Wallace emphasizes that his show does better in the DC television market, though that isn’t exactly the audience presidential candidates are targeting.)

So, remind me, what’s the incentive for Democrats? They get to appear on a Republican network with a Republican audience, which has the smallest number of viewers of any Sunday morning talk show? (“Meet the Press” has about four times the audience of “Fox News Sunday.” “This Week” and “Face the Nation” each have more than twice as many viewers as Wallace’s show.)

Moreover, Wallace also demonstrated that he’s fully ingested the News Corp. Kool Aid.

Being the son of legendary newsman Mike Wallace, and in broadcast news for several decades, the Fox host has definitely been able to observe the mainstream media up close for quite some time.

But on his four-year anniversary this week, Wallace said there is something he’s discovered only since joining the Rupert Murdoch-owned network.

“I used to laugh and dismiss this talk about how we were — that there was a liberal bias in the mainstream media,” Wallace said. “But I have to say in the four years I’ve been at Fox, I’ve come to believe that there is a bias.”

Yeah, I’m sure with comments like that, Democratic candidates will be beating down Wallace’s door, begging to be on the show.

For the record, Hillary Clinton, Joe Biden, Chris Dodd, and Bill Richardson have all appeared on “Fox News Sunday,” either live or via satellite, this year. Barack Obama and John Edwards have declined invitations.

I guess when Wallace refers to “damn fools,” he’s referring to the two campaigns that won’t return his phone calls.

So generous of Chris Wallace, wanting so desperately to deliver Republican votes to a Democratic candidate. Of course his real motivation is that he desperately wants to knock down any Dem stupid enough to appear on his show if he possibly can. Pointless, really, since he’s only preaching to the choir of deadenders who represent Fox’s core audience anyway, but why should our people put themselves through the aggravation?

“…they know that Fox News is a partisan network watched by Republican loyalists.”

Well, DUH!! 🙂

  • I for one and happy to see the Democratic candidates avoid having anything to do with the Faux News network. There is really nothing good that could come of an appearance there, other than a “gotcha” moment of anger or missteps in speech. This “news” network has no interest in having them on for another other purpose than do slip up their attempts at reaching the Whitehouse.

    If and when we do get a Dem as a President, I would love to see this avoidance continue and subjegate Faux to the second tier, phony news network status that it deserves.

  • Maybe we should send him some good imported French cheese and crackers to go with that GOPer “whine” he’s got—the stupid little putz….

  • Why are so many of these second-generation news journalists such pathetic right-wing idiots. Sons, especially, of liberal and progressive commentators seem to be reactionary just for spite, or for rebellion? Sad in any case. Too bad all the Dems aren’t marching along with Reich-faux noodes these days…

  • holy unshirted hell

    This reminds me of an old Celtic saying:

    Never sleep with anyone poorer than you, unless you know how to play the xylophone.

  • Wasn’t Wallace the one Bill Clinton got so angry at in an interview last year, calling him on his bias?

    Between Wallace trying to play gotcha all the time, and Brit Hume’s condescending attitude, and Bill Kristol’s smirking self-satisfied visage, Juan Williams’ feeble attempts to refute Hume and Kristol, and Mara Liasson reading off her steno pad – it’s not even like a real news program. Saturday Night Live’s “Weekend Update” and Jon Stewart’s Daily Show have more credibility and are actually funny, and I expect trounce the Fox show. What does that tell you?

    Of course, it’s not like the other news shows have anything to brag about. Once again, I had to see Tim Russert on NBC last night discussing the two-person Democratic race – as far as they are concerned, and this is true for the other networks, as well – there is no one else running for the Democratic nomination except Clinton and Obama. Not exactly serving the interests of the voters, but then, this isn’t really about the voters. It’s about ratings and polls; issues? What issues? Oh, you mean haircuts and pantsuits and cackles and UFO’s – and “Oprah-palooza! OMG – I almost forgot the Queen of Pretty Much Everything, heiress to the Martha Stewart throne. Well, aren’t those the things you would want to discuss as you judge the beauty pageant? Don’t you care what Oprah cares about?

    Chris Wallace can go suck his thumb in a corner, and I’d be happy to see that corner filled with the lot of them.

  • Wallace and the rest of the FOXNOISE personalities haven’t gotten the memo yet, but Murdoch’s empire is getting diminished returns as of late. By the time of the official election cycle, who knows, maybe FOXNOISE will have to resort to local dog catchers’ campaigns to interview on air. -Kevo

  • Boo. Fucking. Hoo.

    Prepare for more of this as fRighty market share and relevance shrink apace.

    (Wallace emphasizes that his show does better in the DC television market, though that isn’t exactly the audience presidential candidates are targeting.)

    Yeah, and if he could hear some of the things the “DC market” shouts at the TV when he’s on he’d have more to whine about.

  • Riddle me this… Why should any Democrat agree to appear on a network that argues in court that they have the right to deliberately lie?

    Kick them to the curb with this:

    During their appeal, FOX asserted that there are no written rules against distorting news in the media. They argued that, under the First Amendment, broadcasters have the right to lie or deliberately distort news reports on public airwaves. Fox attorneys did not dispute Akre’s claim that they pressured her to broadcast a false story, they simply maintained that it was their right to do so…

    http://www.projectcensored.org/publications/2005/11.html

  • Chris Wallace and the Democrats, sounds a bit like Lucy, Charlie Brown and the whole football kicking thing. Only with Chris, the Dems are invited to come answer questions about their spouse’s infidelity, price of their haircuts and past drug use, to be then followed with a royal dressing down by Brit the Human Harrumph and Billy Krystal, the grinning chicken hawk!

  • For the credulous, that wasn’t really a Celtic saying- it was something I made up on-the-spot.

    Tangentially related– since we already have Conservapedia, I think I’m going to take a step further in that direction and write the Credulomicon (remember the Necronomicon?) including every urban legend of modern Republican dogma they try to push on the middle-to-lower-class Republican, as well as ones they probably would believe.

    I guess it should be a debunking book, too, right?

  • “At this point, it has become kind of a loyalty test inside the Democratic Party…”

    Gee, Chris, what’s even stronger than a loyalty test? Maybe…a loyalty OATH? And which party is requiring its members to sign them? One guess: and it ain’t the Democrats.

    How about some “Fair and Balanced” reporting on whether and to what extent the political parties in this country require loyalty OATHs. Oh, right, it would take away time from breathless bleach-blondes reporting on the faux-outrage of the day.

  • “…“At this point, it has become kind of a loyalty test inside the Democratic Party … pandering to the far-left-wing,” Wallace added. “And we live with it.”…

    Yeah, all ten of them. Chris still believes that conservatives are the majority, neocons the middle, and liberals the far left. His is the interview by ambush an innuendo. He just wants democratic statements on his show as a means of info he can twist and reuse as republican talking points. Bill Clinton proved that in his interview with Chris.

  • It also might be that the Democratic avoidance of Faux News is having an economic impact. The business channel is apparently doing poorly and if the “news” channel is also losing viewership (other than the nut base) poor ol’ Rupuert may be feeling a slight pinch. Good grief! Is it possible boycotts still work?

  • Swan said:
    For the credulous, that wasn’t really a Celtic saying- it was something I made up on-the-spot.

    Incredulous better describes my reaction to reading your posts.

  • Chris Wallace…“Just imagine if the Republicans, under pressure from right-to-life groups, refused to appear on CNN or MSNBC,”

    Me…”OK,,,,and the downside is???”

    • Comments are closed.