Why The Democrats Should Debate On Fox News

Posted by Joshua White on 03.14.2007

Harry Reid and Tom Collins (not the drink) pass up the opportunity to make Fox News biased to the left! What fools.



By now most of you know that the Democrats have pulled out of a Democratic primary debate that was to be aired on Fox News. I'm also sure that you know that most news pundits have already given their views on this subject. Finally, you also know that I only get one column a week, and it comes on a Wednesday, so I have to wait to give my views and they don't. So, I'm going to have to ask you, my loyal followers (all 6 of you) to push all that to the side and read on. Because while the debate is still going on, I'm going to argue my point from a new perspective.

It seems in this Fox News/Democratic Party debate there are two sides. Side 1 is the ridonkulously Left. They hate Fox News. Some of them believe that Fox News is a "right-wing misinformation network." All Fox News does is repeat the party line and they couldn't possibly say anything nice about anyone who is not a Republican. These people hated the idea that the Democratic primary debates and they love the fact that Senate Majority leader Harry Reid and Nevada state party chairman Tom Collins pulled the Democrats from the debate. (Example one, two, and three.)

The other side loves them some Fox News. They think that the Daily Kos (or Kos Kids if you will) are kooks. They think that anyone who is not a Republican or Joe Lieberman is a member of the "loony left." According to these people, Fox News is never biased, and if you think they are you are just experience withdrawal symptoms from your usual liberally biased news drek. These people think that the Democrats are just being sissies for not coming on Fox News. (Example one, and two.)

I want to try to combine the two views and see what conclusion I come to. (I already have my conclusion, but I still need to prove it to you.)

I'm going to, for the sake of argument, claim the following:

Fox News is not only slanted, but evil. They only care about Republicans and they hate everyone with liberal tendencies. Further, the "joke" that Roger Ailes made about Barack Obama was not only unfunny, but cruel. It was deliberately made to hurt Obama. (How could he?!)

So far, it looks like I'm clearly a Side Oner. However, even with all the above, I think that it is an unwise decision to renege on Fox News. So, now I'm on Side Two. I'm going to argue for Side 1.5.

My first reason for thinking that the Dems should have their debate on Fox News is that Harry Reid and Tom Collins made an agreement to do so. I'm not sure that there was an explicit contract, but that isn't the point. This is supposed to be the party of honor an integrity yet it is not acting honorable. Of course, some would say that they are acting honorably by refusing to uphold their end of the bargain. They have to defend Barack Obama from that mean joke. It went too far! Which leads to my second point.

Does anyone actually believe that any Democrat was sincerely offended by Ailes' joke? Do you even think that Obama was offended by this joke? It has been made by everyone! Ted Kennedy once accidentally referred to Obama as Osama! I'm sure that Obama has heard far worse. There is no chance that this is the "real" reason that Reid and Collins are pulling his party out of the debate because of this "joke." It is completely implausible. This cancellation is not because of the joke, it is because of the likes of MoveOn.org and the activists on the left. And this is a terrible reason to cancel. Why?

Let's assume that Fox News is a channel run by the Republican party. Like I said earlier, let's say that they only push Republican stories when they are positive. How can they "spin" a debate? Even if they asked biased questions, the debaters will have a chance to respond to both the bias of the question and to the content thereof. This is a soapbox for all the Democratic party to stand on and shout out the evils of conservatism. Fox News is letting the Democrats come in and control the content of the channel for at least one hour. This is quite a bit of power that the Left is giving up.

But they would have no power if it weren't for the viewers that would watch. And here is the primary reason that the Democrats should hold their debate on Fox News. Fox News gets about 2-3 million viewers for their most popular shows. Let's assume that they would get this many viewers for the debate. This is a large amount of people whose minds could be affected by hearing the other side of the political aisle. Even if these people would never consider voting for a Democrat, the influence that a powerful and influential debater could have on their audience could lead to some amount of change on the Right. (Perhaps the viewer is still pro-life, but now is more favorable to a more universalized health care.)

The Democrats are giving all of this up because they are trying to send a message. But who are they sending this message to? And what is this message?

They may say that they are defending their own from outrageous attacks. Because of this they won't debate on Fox News. But message that others are getting is that the Dems think that Fox News is unworthy of them. And whether or not this is true, this leaves a bad taste in many people's mouths. This will only get worse as the pundits on Fox News talk about it more and more.

Stop allowing your potential candidates to be such babies Mr. Reid and Collins. This will not help you. This will not make the activist Left love you that much more. And this could hurt you with the moderates.


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