Nevada Democrats to Fox News: It’s not us, it’s you

March 10, 2007

In retrospect, one really has to wonder who thought this was a good idea to begin with. Fox News co-sponsored a 2004 presidential debate and, predictably, did an awful job. And yet, there was the Nevada Democratic Party partnering with the Republicans’ news network to host one of the season’s major Democratic presidential debates in Reno, scheduled for August 14.

John Edwards was the first to announce he would not participate in the event, and yesterday morning, Bill Richardson did the same thing. By mid-day, the debate was scrapped.

The Nevada Democratic Party canceled yesterday an August debate in Reno it had been scheduled to co-sponsor with Fox News, after weeks of complaints from liberal groups and a controversial remark by the network’s chairman.

Fox News Chairman Roger Ailes said Thursday while accepting an award from the Radio and Television News Directors Foundation: “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?’ ”

Democrats said the comment, which referred to Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf, likened Obama, a senator from Illinois, to Osama bin Laden.

Last night, Senate Majority Leader Harry M. Reid (D-Nev.) and Tom Collins, chairman of the Nevada Democratic Party, released a letter to the network that said Ailes “went too far.” “We cannot, as good Democrats, put our party in a position to defend such comments,” the two added.

With all due respect to the Nevada Dems, who clearly did the right thing here, Ailes’ absurd attempts at humor became an easy excuse to do what Dems everywhere knew the party had to do. Ailes’ attacks on Obama, Clinton, and Edwards on Thursday simply offered the party a face-saving measure on Friday.

I generally avoid netroots triumphalism, but instead of blaming Ailes for spurring the deal-breaker, I prefer to credit progressive activists for a job well done.

One assumes the party expected some grumbling from the activist base, which they probably assumed would blow over. It obviously didn’t — Kos, MyDD, Robert Greenwald, MoveOn, and others got organized, pressured candidates, lobbied party officials, and said, in no uncertain terms, that partnering with a Republican outlet was simply unacceptable for a Democratic debate.

The coordination was a sight to behold. Greenwald posted a web video, national bloggers coordinated with local bloggers, petitions drew hundreds of thousands of signatures, and MoveOn activists in Nevada raised all manner of hell. The progressive netroots community has had other victories, but few as impressive. If this is a sign of things to come, we all have reason to be encouraged.

MoveOn.org Civic Action & Robert Greenwald’s Brave New Films released a press statement that summarized the victory nicely.

“We hope this sets a precedent for all Democrats – that FOX should be treated as a right-wing misinformation network, not legitimized as a neutral source of news,” said Eli Pariser, Executive Director of MoveOn.org Civic Action. “John Edwards, Harry Reid, the Nevada Democratic Party, and grassroots progressives across the nation deserve credit for standing up to Fox’s right-wing agenda.” […]

Fox critics have urged NV Democrats to pick a legitimate news source to host the August debate. “This is a victory for truth and journalism,” said Greenwald. “By standing up to FOX’s right-wing smears, the patriotic grassroots, netroots, Senator Reid, Senator Edwards, and the Nevada Democrats have all worked together to protect one of the most important elements of a free society — the press.” […]

Danny Coyle, one of thousands of MoveOn members in Nevada, is on the Executive Board of the Carson City Democratic Central Committee. This Wednesday, he offered a resolution calling on the state party to drop FOX – it passed overwhelmingly among the grassroots Democrats in attendance.

“I am glad and relieved that the Nevada Democratic leadership has come to its senses,” Coyle said. “Any kind of relationship with FOX is bad for the party.”

“The lies of FOX News and Roger Ailes have no place in public discourse, journalism, or the Democratic Party presidential debates,” said Matt Stoller, president of Blogpac, who wrote about this issue on national progressive blog www.MyDD.com, “FOX sees truth as the enemy, and misinformation as a tool to hurt their political opposition.”

Kudos to all of the activists who made this happen.

The Nevada Democratic Party should put out a press release stating that from now on only legitimate news organizations can partner with them to host debates. Right wing propaganda outlets need not apply.

  • Let the final assault upon Fortress FUX begin. everyone should boycoot them. Protests should be held outside their corporate HQ and news-broadcast centers on a round-the-clock basis. If that doesn’t bring them down, then expand the boycotts and protests to their local affiliate stations. Go after their sponsors with letter-writing campaigns. Bury their email systems. Ramp this thing up to a national level with the old mathematical A:B:C model:

    (A:B) FUX network is financially supported by Product “y”;
    (A:C) FUX network is not worthy of being in my home; thus
    (B:C) Product “y” is not worthy of being in my home.

    Roger Ailes doesn’t have enough money to counter something like this….

  • I think it’s great that the Dems tied the cancellation of the debate to Roger Ailes remarks. That emphasizes his Coulterlike attitudes and further hurts Fox showing that it is top-down rotten.

  • Ailes’ absurd attempts at humor became an easy excuse to do what Dems everywhere knew the party had to do.

    1. That’s not necessarily a bad thing, as it makes it easier to sell the decision to anyone who wasn’t convinced about the need to do this and/or those who don’t mainline the internet and thus knew all about the controversy.

    2. Stop to consider just how significant this is for a moment: Ailes knew that the controversy was strong and he knew the arguments which liberals were using. Yet, despite that, he handed liberals not only another example of what they were complaining about, but he also handed Democratic officials an easy excuse to do what they needed to do. Is this a sign of how arrogant he is, that he thought more such comments wouldn’t matter? Is this a sign of how much he hates, that he can’t keep himself from making such comments? Is there any situation that would cause him to simply shut up, not express his partisan beliefs, and act like a right-wing hack? If not, that would help reveal just how extreme he really is.

  • Ailes probably wanted the Democrats to cancel the event with FOX. If they cover a debate, FOX gets maybe a few days worth of material to use against the Democrats. If they cancel the debate, I can’t even imagine how long FOX will carry on about Democrats “hating freedom of speech” and “being afraid to “ace the truth.”

    I think Ailes intended to goad them until they cancelled. It plays better into the FOX narrative.

  • Edwards showed courageous leadership here. The Dems are right to shun FUX’s ham-handed approaches to “news” (i.e., GOP propaganda) and Ailes’ attempt at humor (at which today’s GOP seems constitutionally incapable — hatred yes, humor no).

  • Oh, come on, the butt of the Ailes joke was Bush, not Obama. I thought it was funny!

  • This is just another example of the right wingers having their cake and eating it: debate or no debate they get material to pillory the Dems with either way. They really are much better at creating perceptions than anyone else, and unfortunately also always two steps ahead of everyone else.

    When Fox suggested sponsoring a debate the Dems should have doubled over laughing. How could they be so stupid as to even consider it, let alone agree, and then back out? No wonder Ailes gets awards.

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