A Debate Worth Skipping
I agree completely with Kos and Matt Stoller on this one. The Democratic presidential candidates should not agree to participate in a debate hosted by Fox News.
First, from a purely strategic standpoint, it is not in any of the Democratic candidate's interests to be subjected to a series of "when did you stop beating your wife" type questions by Brit Hume or some other partisan shill whose primary goal will be to make every candidate look bad. The Republican candidates would never agree to participate in a debate hosted by, say, Keith Olbermann--and for obvious reasons.
More importantly, though, events like this only serve to legitimize Fox News, a network that is institutionally committed to propping up the Republican party. This is a network whose lead anchor is an insufferable partisan shill and whose Sunday host became the White House Press Secretary, a network whose raison d'être is to smear Democrats and defend even the most indefensible conduct on the part of Republicans.
Fox News functions, for all intents and purposes, as a propaganda outlet of the Republican party, and it makes no sense at all for Democratic leaders to indulge the charade that Fox is some sort of legitimate news organization. It's silly and it's counterproductive. There will be plenty of opportunities for the Democrats to debate each other in other venues. They should all say "thanks but no thanks" to Fox.
First, from a purely strategic standpoint, it is not in any of the Democratic candidate's interests to be subjected to a series of "when did you stop beating your wife" type questions by Brit Hume or some other partisan shill whose primary goal will be to make every candidate look bad. The Republican candidates would never agree to participate in a debate hosted by, say, Keith Olbermann--and for obvious reasons.
More importantly, though, events like this only serve to legitimize Fox News, a network that is institutionally committed to propping up the Republican party. This is a network whose lead anchor is an insufferable partisan shill and whose Sunday host became the White House Press Secretary, a network whose raison d'être is to smear Democrats and defend even the most indefensible conduct on the part of Republicans.
Fox News functions, for all intents and purposes, as a propaganda outlet of the Republican party, and it makes no sense at all for Democratic leaders to indulge the charade that Fox is some sort of legitimate news organization. It's silly and it's counterproductive. There will be plenty of opportunities for the Democrats to debate each other in other venues. They should all say "thanks but no thanks" to Fox.
posted by A.L. at 12:11 AM
3 Comments:
Well, perhaps you all are being a little too harsh - perhaps the democrats could show up and fling feces at the faux news lying liars.
After all, you know that the lying liars would be throwing feces at the dems.
I would suppose then that you don't think Republicans should participate in a debate hosted by ABC news whose Sunday host was the Clinton Administration's press secretary?
Candidates should treat Fox News as Obama did when they ran with the Madrassa story. Fool me once, and all that. Perhaps a 'tit-for-tat;' if Republican candidates would agree to an Olbermann moderator, then I'd say do it. If only to spotlight the different, 'balanced' treatment.
Anonymous above is free to point out anything that Steph. has said (including banners at the bottom of the screen) on his show when interviewing Republicans that is even remotely similar to what Fox News did in previous Democractic candidate debates which they have hosted. My guess is that person won't, because there aren't any, and he/she knows it. Smoke and mirrors, and yet another sad attempt at desiring 'balance.'
Post a Comment
Links to this post:
Create a Link
<< Home