Carson City Democrats Say No To Fox News Debate

Posted by Myrna the Minx on March 8, 2007 | Comments (5) | Trackbacks (0)

Consider the Fox News debate in Nevada dead on arrival. Here is an announcement from Moveon.org:

Wednesday night, the Carson City Democratic Central Committee became the first local committee to urge the state Democratic Party to drop Fox from the upcoming presidential debate.

The below resolution was offered by Danny N. Coyle, a MoveOn member and Carson City Dems executive board member. It passed overwhelmingly. A letter will be be sent to NV Democratic Party Chair Tom Collins and the rest of the state Executive Board stating that the resolution passed.

As Nevada’s state capitol, and as the third largest county in Nevada, Carson City’s vote is very significant.

Carson City Democratic Central Committee
RESOLUTION OPPOSING FOX PRESIDENTIAL DEBATE

March 7, 2007

WHEREAS, Fox News is not a neutral source of news – it’s a right-wing mouthpiece like Rush Limbaugh that smears Democrats and spreads blatantly false information; and

WHEREAS, Democrats granting Fox News the illusion of credibility would allow Fox to more easily “swiftboat” our 2008 candidates by pushing false Republican attacks into the mainstream media; and

WHEREAS, everyone supports reaching out to new people, but 1 day of Fox coverage is not worth legitimizing Fox’s misinformation the other 364 days a year; and

WHEREAS, plenty of better alternatives exist to Fox News – in Nevada, MSNBC plus its NBC affiliates, for example, get approximately double the viewers of Fox cable plus its local affiliates; and

WHEREAS, we believe that Democrats need to fight back against Fox News and the right-wing smear machine in the 2008 election cycle—not enable it.

BE IT RESOLVED, the Carson City Democratic Central Committee opposes the proposal to let Fox News host a Democratic presidential debate and strongly urges the Nevada Democratic Party to drop that proposal.

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Comments

You bet it’s significant. Some are trying to take the party back from the neolibs.

But don’t look for it to happen in Douglas County, the epicenter for neolibs determined to take up where Collins leaves off.

Comment by texex on March 8, 2007 @ 10:43 am

i faxed sen. reid expressing my displeasure.

i also contributed to edwards as a reward for not showing up to fox noise debate.

i suggest everyone who follows my lead tack on an extra .08 cents to their contribution to signify that it came from the netroots to show our pleasure at his boycott.

content of the fax sent to reid’s office over at skippy.

(ps i’m also mailing back my “team reid” t shirt i got at ykos alst year! without washing it!)

Comment by skippy on March 8, 2007 @ 1:08 pm

Hey Myrna check out Hugh Jackson’s latest, “The Las Vegas Gleaner” post - you’re NOT going to believe what the NSDP is trying to pull next! Well, on second thought, it’s really no surprise at all - but, a significant event and “news worthy” to say the least…and that seems to be Tom & Jerry’s, er, oops I meant Tom & Harry’s M.O. to continue to be stubborn and say nothing, or use “plan B” and “say the least” - this is just pathetic politics and the price is being paid by the people.

Why can’t we just get our questions answered honestly - is it too much to simply ask for the truth?

Comment by Johnathan L. Abbinett on March 8, 2007 @ 4:51 pm

Fair and balanced’ anti-Clinton and Obama jokes by Fox News chief
by kos
Fri Mar 09, 2007 at 10:13:26 AM PST

This is the tone for future coverage that the top guy at Fox News, Roger Ailes, is setting:

It is true that just in the last two weeks Hillary Clinton has had over 200 phone calls telling her in order to win the presidency she must stay on the road for the next two years. It is not true they were all from Bill.

[Laughter]

And 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?’

It should be a no-brainer for Obama and Clinton to skip this debate, given it’s sponsored by the premier propaganda outlet of the conservative movement. It’s the place Ann Coulter runs to for sanctuary, where racist blowhards trash Obama’s church for not being Christian enough since it’s — gasp! — a black church in a black neighborhood.

And what’s more, Ailes threatened Edwards:

Any candidate for high office of either party who believes he can blacklist any news organization is making a terrible mistake about journalists. And any candidate of either party who cannot answer direct, simple, even tough questions from any journalist runs a real risk of losing the voters.

The Hotline looked at that threat, and says it’s the reason people like us are skeptical:

John Edwards is skipping a debate — one of more than a dozen — arguably a little less fundamental to our deliberate democracy. And the threat here is that Fox News will somehow treat Edwards differently if he refuses to appear at their debate. Doesn’t that reinforce the reasons why Edwards (spurred by Nevada grassroots Dems, MoveOn and Kos) is dubious.

They’re going to treat Edwards differently regardless, since he’s one of those, you know, Democrats. It’s what Fox does.

Yesterday, Harry Reid piled on Fox and hung out his local party out to dry:

When the party announced in February that Fox would be broadcasting the debate, it issued a statement in which Reid was quoted as saying “This is more great news for Nevada. I’m happy FOX News will be a partner for the August presidential debate.”

Asked Thursday if we was standing by that statement, Reid said “I hold elation” over the attention that the Nevada caucus is getting from presidential candidates and that Nevada debates will be televised. But he suggested his statement might have been different “had I known at that time that it would be a controversy.”

In addition to distancing himself from the FOX decision Thursday — “I don’t like FOX News” — the Senate Majority Leader reiterated several times that the Nevada Democratic Party is independent and not controlled by him, at one point going so far as to say “I just don’t know what’s going on in the party.”

Regardless of where this goes from here (and I can’t imagine this debate will happen now), fact is Fox News’ efforts to paint themselves a credible news operation has suffered serious damage. There are nearly 200 articles on Google News on the controversy, every single one of them referring to Fox News as a conservative propaganda outlet. And that’s just on print, not including air time spent on this story.

So not only is the future of this debate in question, and the “fair and balanced” coverage it would provide, but the whole controversy has broadly exposed the fact that Fox News is anything but “fair and balanced”.