The worst of all possible venues

February 21, 2007

We’re a ways off, but on August 14, the Nevada Democratic Party and the Western Majority Project are scheduled to host one of the season’s major Democratic presidential debates in Reno. The good news is, the event will be nationally televised. The bad news is, you’ll have to watch Fox News, which is co-sponsoring the event.

In making the announcement, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) said, “This is more great news for Nevada. I’m happy FOX News will be a partner for the August presidential debate. Western issues will be a major focus of this debate in particular. With FOX News as our partner, candidates will have an opportunity to not only speak to Nevada voters, but voters across the West who will be instrumental to electing a Democratic president in 2008.”

FOX News Chairman and CEO Roger Ailes added, “FOX News is proud to be a leader in coverage of the 2008 campaign season and a co-host of this important presidential debate. We look forward to working with the Nevada Democratic Party and the Western Majority Project.”

Kos asked, “Does this mean that Air America will be hosting a Republican presidential debate?” That’s not a bad analogy, except Air America is occasionally critical of Democrats.

To clarify, there will be two key debates in Nevada before the state’s January caucuses, one in August, the other on Nov. 4. CNN was reportedly offered the chance to broadcast both, but chose the latter date, which CNN expects to have more significance and a larger audience. Fox News picked up CNN’s hand-me-down.

Moreover, I’m not entirely unsympathetic to the Nevada Democratic Party’s concerns. It wanted a national co-sponsor that would broadcast the event live. The NDP apparently had a choice of Fox News or nothing.

And yet, even with those circumstances in mind, I’m disappointed — and wondering if there’s a way to fix this.

A spokesperson for the Nevada Democratic Party has an explanation.

“FOX News’ viewership in Western states and across the country does not always get to hear directly from Democrats in an unedited and uninterrupted fashion. The August debate in Reno will allow the Democratic Presidential candidates to speak to the Fox audience who may be hearing from them for the first time for ninety minutes unfiltered and directly.”

“The Nevada Democratic Party and the Western Majority Project believe it is critical for Democrats to engage people, especially those who have heard too little from Democrats in the past. We believe the more people hear from Democrats, the better chance a Democrat will win the White House in 2008.”

That’s not particularly persuasive. First, the Dem candidates won’t exactly be “unedited and uninterrupted”; they’ll be asked questions by Fox News “journalists.” It’s safe to assume the inquiries won’t be “fair and balanced.”

Also, Fox News viewers may “hear too little from Democrats,” but that’s because the network is an arm of the Republican machine. That’s the point of the problem here — the party is teaming up with a partisan outlet, which exists to help the other side. As Kos explained, the debate “further validate[s] the conservative machine’s propaganda machine. At a time when Democrats should be doing everything to destroy the network’s credibility, they are planning to do the opposite.”

For that matter, Matt Stoller adds that the last time Fox News hosted a Democratic presidential debate, the network cut off the final few minutes and went directly to the studio, where viewers could hear Bill Bennett blast the candidates before the event actually ended.

I’m not sure what, if anything, Dems can do about this. Should candidates boycott? It is too late to ask MSNBC? Are there alternate co-sponsors who could intervene? I honestly don’t know, but this seems to have “mistake” written all over it.

it also unfairly penalizes Obama for doing the right thing: taking a hard line against Fox’s manipulations and malfeasance. He now has to either (a) skip major debates or (b) roll over and look weak on the issue. Hard to believe his D rivals have nothing to do with this.

  • That bit about “Billie-Joe-Jim-Bob-Roy” Bennett hits the nail on the head. fOx will play their usual game; adding “commentary” and strategically-prepped commercials to “interrupt” anything that they don’t want “Das Base” to hear….

  • Lie down with FOXes, get up with rabies. Ugg.

    Not to mention all the chances for “creative editing and reporting” possibilities. “Rumor has it Obama was seen setting fire to a nun last night…”

  • I agree that Fox should be avoided if at all possible, if nothing else to take revenue away from them. But I also don’t think Fox will be able to do anything that will help the Republicans much by that point in time. By August the “surge” will have failed to establish order (again), and there will be even more Republicrooks who will have gnawed off their arms rather than go down chained to Bush in the 2008 elections. By that point Fox itself may be distancing themselves from the radioactive Republicans.

    All we need to do is make sure that Pelosi and Co keep up with the American people on the Iraq withdrawal issue, and keep investigating the Republicans for all their corruption. Fox could put anyone they want on TV and it wouldn’t help them much.

  • The Nevada Democrats either know something we don’t, such as agreements to certain ground rules, etc., or they are hopelessly naive. The old Hollywood saw that any pulicity is good publicity does not apply to Fox hit jobs.

    On the Western Majority Project (from Desert Beacon)
    “The Western Majority Project (WMP), another cosponsor of the FOX debate, is a federally registered political action committee. WMP was recently founded to build upon the growing political strength of the West by injecting Western issues into the national dialogue and highlight the common sense, forward looking, independent values of Western voters. WMP’s advisory council includes co-chairs Arizona Governor Janet Napolitano and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-NV, as well as Senators Ken Salazar, Colorado; Max Baucus, Montana; Jon Tester, Montana; and Jeff Bingaman, New Mexico and Governors Bill Ritter, Colorado; Brian Schweitzer, Montana; Bill Richardson, New Mexico.”

  • Mistake ??
    That’s my party, walking right into a land mine.
    No wonder the right has no respect for us, we don’t have any for ourselves. At least Obama had the good sense to stay clear.

    Can you really blame anyone that thinks we can’t govern ?? We can’t even realize when we are being set-up by Fox News, the lamest of lame.

  • Does the NDC doubt the power of propaganda? This isn’t a case of harmless spin. FNC is an organization that purposely manipulates language (or just makes up things) in order to skew information so that it is favorable to the Republican Party. This isn’t the same thing as conservatives and liberals searching for minor ideological taint in the news media. FNC is part and parcel of the right-wing noise machine.

  • Maybe the first time I’ve ever seen Roger Ailes refer to it as the “Democratic Party”. I suggest that Reid hold Fox’s feet to the fire – any references to the “Democrat Party” on the channel from now on and they pull the sponsorship and give it to someone else.

  • Candidates should boycott. This serves several purposes.

    1. It keeps them out of a debated where the neocons have put in “the fix” to make them all look bad, yet favor the one they consider a weak link. (Probably Hillary.)

    2. It shows us which primary candidates are smart enough to run a good campaign in the general, and which are idiots who can be easily manipulated by the neocons.

    3. If all they get are Hillary and Kucinich, and nobody watches, the prestige and pocketbook of Fox is damaged.

  • So Bill Richardson is on the Advisory Council of the WMP. And I’ve never seen Fox commentators attack Bill like they have Hillary or Obama.

    So I guess all I can say is, nicely played, Bill…!

  • Why would the Democrats set themselves up for a post-debate discussion that will feature Bill Kristol, Brit Hume, Fred Barnes and McCain/Lieberman lover Mort Kondracke, with Juan Williams thrown in for “balance”? I have no idea.

    They might as well just get a “Republican response” like you would get after a State of the Union address. At least then it would be an official response from the opposition party.

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