Howard Dean calls Fox News "a propaganda outlet of the Republican Party." And today he admits that "Fox News Channel rarely has coverage that is fair and balanced." All this is true. But then he argues, in a complete non sequitur, that Fox News should host a Democratic debate.
Dean:
We believe that Fox viewers, who are potential voters, should have the opportunity to see a debate between our candidates.
Except that Fox viewers, to the extent that this is a euphemism for Republicans, are not potential voters. That's because this is a Democratic primary. Democratic primary debates exist to help Democratic voters choose a Democratic candidate. (Note: Nevada has closed caucuses.) Furthermore, the Democratic Party exists to serve members of the Democratic party. The Democratic Party does not exist to subsidize the Republican noise machine by creating major events to be viewed exclusively on Republican noise machine apparati.
More Dean:
These forums provide an important unfiltered opportunity for potential voters to see Democrats without the bias of the network.
This is also not true. Fox News has demonstrated that when it sponsors a Democratic debate, it does not "provide an unfiltered opportunity for potential voters to see Democrats without the bias of the network."
From one petition:
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.
So... what just happened to Dean? I can't imagine that, had he organized this debate, Dean would have chosen to put it on Fox News, any more than the RNC would choose to put its primary debates on Air America (you know, for the "important opportunity" to show Republicans unfiltered to Democratic audiences).
So, here's what you can do: