As mentioned earlier today, the Nevada Democratic Party is trying to justify it's efforts to host a presidential debate to be aired by the conservative propagandists over at Fox News.
"FOX News' viewership in Western states and across the country does not always get to hear directly from Democrats in an unedited and uninterrupted fashion. The August debate in Reno will allow the Democratic Presidential candidates to speak to the Fox audience who may be hearing from them for the first time for ninety minutes unfiltered and directly."
Unedited and uninterrupted, huh?
Here's how "fair and balanced" Fox was the last time they did one of these:
For an example of how disrespectful and counterproductive such Fox News-sponsored Democratic debates are, consider the September 9, 2003 Democratic debate in Baltimore, Maryland, hosted by Fox News in partnership with the Congressional Black Caucus. 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.
Bowers adds:
Insulting graphics, biased post-debate spin, loaded questions, conservative protesters--none of that sounds very "unfiltered" to me. Further, how much of the debate will Fox cut off entirely in order to have their in-house pundits offer negative commentary while the Democratic candidates are still speaking? Four years ago, in typically unfiltered fashion, Fox cut away from the Democratic debate they hosted a couple of minutes before it ended, in order to give arch-conservative William Bennett the first shot at post-debate spin.
MoveOn is joining the effort, while local blogger Myrna thinks Harry Reid should get pressure, as Nevada Dems won't do anything without his approval.
I’m sure the conversation went something like this:
Harry Reid: We need a nationally televised, prime time debate in Northern Nevada before the caucus. CNN declined, Fox said okay.
[State Democratic Party Chair] Tom Collins: yes sir Mr. Senate Majority Leader. You’re the boss. But might some Democrats not like the idea of a Democratic debate on Fox News?
Harry Reid: Couldn’t hear you……
Tom Collins: Where’s my gin?
Good point. I'm on it.
Update: BlogPAC has a petition form up.
Update II: A spokesman from Reid's office says the agreement for the debate was "negotiated between Fox and the Nevada Democratic Party". I asked, "So Reid played no role at all?" The spokesman demurred. He couldn't confirm or deny that.
Part of it is that Reid and much of his staff is in Nevada for the AFSCME conference today, so the lines of communication are slow.
Update III: Another quick update, Reid's office is now saying that "Reid was not personally involved in the negotiations."
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