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Following in the unfortunate footsteps of Bernie Sanders and Amy Klobuchar, Pete Buttigieg heaped unwarranted and dangerous credibility on Fox News, aka Donald Trump’s personal state media outlet. At a time when liberal activists have been making headway in chasing advertisers away from the toxic and racist network, too many Democrats have been eager to undermine those efforts to … what, exactly? They’re certainly not chasing Democratic primary voters. Fox News viewers are literally more pro-Trump than self-identified Republicans.
Is it to win over white working-class voters that have abandoned the Democratic Party in droves due to racism, xenophobia, and misogyny? There’s certainly some nobility in such an effort, however obviously doomed it might be. Because here’s the thing: Even the most gifted political salesman doesn’t stand a chance on Fox. Sure, they might hand over a block of programming on a Sunday night, in a ploy to dupe advertisers into thinking Fox News can’t possibly be that toxic if “even Democrats” decide to appear.
But the other 99.999999% of the time? Fox will do Fox. “[T]he town hall does not exist in a vacuum,” wrote Melissa Joskow of Media Matters. ”[W]ithin hours -- after the commentariat had stopped watching Fox -- the network began smearing Buttigieg in an effort that will likely minimize any gains he might have made with its viewers.”
Want examples of that smearing? Joskow has many:
“Fox & Friends, the Fox morning show beloved by President Donald Trump, devoted significant time on Monday to undermining Buttigieg’s presentation. Buttigieg is a veteran of the war in Afghanistan; co-host Brian Kilmeade presented him as trying to undermine American patriotism, calling him a “clown” who wants to “erase our country’s history” for arguing that the Democratic Party’s Jefferson-Jackson dinners should be renamed for people who didn’t own slaves. The candidate received a warm response from the town hall attendees; Kilmeade bizarrely claimed the crowd was enthusiastic only because it was stacked with his friends and relatives. Buttigieg is a gifted communicator; the program sliced and diced his town hall answers into a clip reel of disjointed quotes which the co-hosts warned prove he is a “very progressive” radical. “He had some interesting comments last night, sounds like a nice guy, but do you agree with his policies?” co-host Ainsley Earhardt said at one point before rattling off a misinformation-laden litany of Buttigieg’s purported positions.
“This onslaught will almost certainly continue throughout the day and into the night, when the network’s stars perform for an audience that will surely be much greater than Buttigieg’s. That was also the trajectory Fox’s coverage tracked after Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) partnered with the network for a town hall recently.”
Any potentially open mind will be immediately slammed shut by a parade of Fox News miscreants. They roll out the red carpet to gain credibility with skittish advertisers, and Democrats pretend they don’t understand the broader Fox News mission and modus operandi.
Only two Democrats have rebuffed Fox News’ invitations: Elizabeth Warren and Kamala Harris. They are the only ones who understand the obvious—if you’re trying to win a Democratic primary, you go where Democrats are. You know Joe Biden will want to go on, since part of his schtick is “I can win back racist white voters.” (He can’t.) After that? The rest of the field is currently in also-ran status. They’re looking for any attention in a world in which no one cares they’re running, so they’ll happily take a Fox News invitation if they can score one.
Too bad that all they’re doing is helping Trump’s network’s bottom line. If these Democrats actually presented a threat to Republicans, there’s no way Fox News would ever have them on.