Democrats cancel Fox News debate
Cory Bergman March 11th, 2007
First, John Edwards pulled out of the Fox News sponsored debate, scheduled for August 14th in Nevada. Then Fox Chairman Roger Ailes, while receiving the First Amendment Leadership Award from RTNDF on Thursday night, cracked this joke:
“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?’”
Ailes went on in the same speech to warn candidates against blacklisting Fox News in the election season. Hours later, the Obama joke darted around the internet, and before long the Democrats pulled the plug on the August debate. A Fox News representative reacted by saying the Nevada Democratic Caucus “appears to be controlled by radical fringe out-of-state interest groups.”
20 Comments Add your own
1. Jason P. | March 11th, 2007 at 11:26 am
Since when do news organizations just blatantly attack political parties in press releases? Or is FOX News the one who’s “controlled by interest groups”?
2. Vinny | March 11th, 2007 at 11:27 am
Funny but Jeanne Moos went around the streets of NYC asking people what they thought of “Obama.” No first name. Of course the Yokels she found all said Bush f’ed up by not capturing him, he’s a bastard, etc.
The piece ran about 10 minutes and yet I registered not 1 iota of outrage from the folks who lost their mind over one Ailes joke on a similar plane.
Hypocrisy? Duh.
3. Jason P. | March 11th, 2007 at 11:32 am
Vinny, if you think it was one “joke” that made the Democrats cancel the debate and not 10 years of smears, lies and distortions aimed solely at their party, then you’re being deliberately obtuse.
4. Charles | March 11th, 2007 at 11:52 am
Wait… The DNC cancelled a debate because of a joke about President Bush’s intelligence? Really? That’s a surprising show of character for them.
Oh, wait.
5. Rocker | March 11th, 2007 at 2:02 pm
Another marketing home run for Fox News. I’m sure they’re very grateful to Edwards and the Nevada Democrats.
6. thetrailerparkchannel | March 11th, 2007 at 2:22 pm
yes, this is playing very well with all my neighbors, rocker.
7. Anonymous | March 11th, 2007 at 9:07 pm
Ah well, the Dems still have CBS, NBC, ABC, CNN, and MSNBC to fall back on for support. So Fox has “10 years of smears, lies and distortions”? LOL. Apologists are funny!
8. Safran | March 11th, 2007 at 9:16 pm
So any hope of 2008 being an election when we stop with the easy labels, name-calling and generally destructive and smug politics is…
9. The Tony | March 11th, 2007 at 9:34 pm
Just once, I’d like to vote FOR someone, as opposed to AGAINST someone.
Doesn’t look like that’s going to happen on Election Day THIS time around, either.
Why are all the people running this country a bunch of ninnies? Do they all have to be such jackasses all the time? You’d think politics might require thick skin, but apparently not.
The media should always be ashamed. For everything, ever. All media.
I’d say FOX News should be more ashamed than others, but they clearly don’t understand such a concept.
10. Jason P. | March 12th, 2007 at 7:20 am
Hey, Steve, I’m all for an election without the labels and the name-calling. But when the head of Fox jokingly calls Obama a terrorist, what really should the Democrats do?
11. Steve Safran | March 12th, 2007 at 7:59 am
The same thing Mom said about sticks and stones?
12. JIB | March 12th, 2007 at 8:48 am
Does anybody care about the potential harm to the First Amendment if this trend continues. Imagine if the Republican Party tried to boycott MSNBC? I don’t care what your politics may be, as journalists we need to defend one another and the press institution from these kinds of attacks.
This is a slippery slope…
13. The Tony | March 12th, 2007 at 9:03 am
There are a ton of outlets now, though.
Who cares?
The Dems are possibly making MORE of a statement by not showing up on propaganda-vision.
Same for any Republican who wants to pretend that MSNBC is “liberal” rather than “objective.” There’s a big difference, as FNC tends to flaunt its bias. LET them now show up for the fun and games, it’s their call, right?
14. Rizzo | March 12th, 2007 at 9:13 am
Seeing as Fox News is less a news channel than a conservative mouthpiece, I think the Dems were stupid to even accept a debate on the channel in the first place.
Then again, most televised debates have been jokes since the late 80’s anyhow, so does it really matter?
I can’t wait to see how Rush will manage to blame the Clintons for this one….
15. Bobb | March 12th, 2007 at 11:40 am
“Since when do news organizations just blatantly attack political parties in press releases? ”
Uhh, since CNN went on the air?
16. stiill | March 12th, 2007 at 11:46 am
“Apologists are funny!”
I do not think that word means what you think it means.
(No, really. You should look it up.)
17. Gerald | March 13th, 2007 at 6:24 am
“But when the head of Fox jokingly calls Obama a terrorist, what really should the Democrats do?”
You read that joke as calling Obama a terrorist? I read it as calling Bush an idiot. I guess it just depends on where your preconceived notions lie. If you think FOX is a right-wing mouthpiece, then I can see why you’d miss the joke when they call Bush an idiot. But I think that’s clearly what the intent was.
18. Chester | March 21st, 2007 at 12:16 am
I would like to have seen a “real debate” between the Mayor of Salt Lake City, Utah “Rocky Anderson” and Bill O’Reilly.
Instead Mr.O’Reilly presented himself as lacking even the smallest amount of intellectual honesty… I saw Mr.O’Reilly resort to childish name calling and then would not allow the Mayor of Salt Lake City, Utah the chance to present the facts in order for the tow of them to engage in a “real debate”.
I have listened to Mr.O’Reilly many times in the past on the radio
But because Mr. O’Reilly is not willing to have “real debate” about the facts with the Mayor of Salt Lake City, Utah…I have no choice but to look upon Mr. Bill O’Reilly of “Fox News” in a new way..
From now on… Mr. Bill O’Reilly of “Fox News”, to me, is merely a pretender totally lacking the intellectual ability to engage in an honest and fair debate with anyone intelligent.
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20. Joseph J Vialonga | October 9th, 2007 at 7:00 am
Liberals are truly pathetic on top of being anti American and whiners.
They used they Obama excuse because they were terrified to appear in a format where the questions were not known and where they couldn’t provide their usual sound bite meaningless answers.
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