Wednesday, February 21, 2007

Nevada Nuttiness: Fox News And The Democrats

Yesterday it was announced by the Democratic Party of Nevada that Fox News will televise their Presidential debate on August 14th. Despite being known as a propraganda outlet of the Republican Party and all that is right-wing-nuttery, the Nevada Dems chose them anyway. Why would they do such a thing to shoot the Presidental candidates in the feet in such a way?

According the Nevada Democratic Party:


"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."

Are you kidding me? This is Fox News we are talking about. The home of ultra-conservative talking heads, frequent appearances by wingnuts like Ann Coulter on spiteful and misleading shows such as 'Fox and Friends', 'Hannity and Colmes' and the newest disgrace 'The Half Hour News Hour.' The cable news network recently ran a hit piece on Obama even after it was throughly debunked by CNN and others. Nevada may believe that Fox can be fair and balanced, but they really should take a look at the history of Fox News and Democratic debates.

From The Petition Site:

For an example of how disrespectful and counterproductive such Fox News-sponsored Democratic debates are, consider the September 9, 2003 Democratic debate in Baltimore, Maryland, hosted by Fox News in partnership with the Congressional Black Caucus. Fox News graphics, as well as a banner over the stage, titled the event as the "Democrat Candidate Presidential Debate," a misconstruction of "Democrat" used as an an epithet. Fox News then summarized the debate with a story titled, "Democratic Candidates Offer Grim View of America," continuing with such jabs as, "The depiction of the president as the root of all evil began at the top of Tuesday night's debate...." Controversial questions included the accusation that Howard Dean had a racist gun policy by Fox News analyst Juan Williams. There were also multiple interruptions by protesters throughout the debate, leading to four arrests.


If you agree with me and think that this utter nonsense and needs to stop before it starts, go to the petition site and tell the Nevada Democratic Party that this is the wrong move to make. Giving credibility to Fox News is a slap in the face to Democrats that have suffered their false and misleading attacks ever since the network was started by ideologues like Rupert Murdoch and Roger Ailes.