HuffPo: Democrats Dump Fox

[babylonsister]

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/melinda-henneberger/democrats-dump-fox_b_43060.html

Democrats Dump Fox

Melinda Henneberger | Posted March 9, 2007 05:32 PM

The Huffington Post can confirm that the Nevada Democratic Party has decided to back out of a Fox News-sponsored presidential debate in August following Fox President Roger Ailes's recent remarks comparing Democratic Senator Barack Obama to al Qaeda leader Osama Bin Laden.

Fox News did not answer calls seeking reaction to the decision.

Democratic presidential candidate John Edwards had already announced that he would not participate in the Fox debate. His party followed suit today, under pressure from the more than 265,000 people who signed a petition calling Fox "a mouthpiece for the Republican Party, not a legitimate news channel" and urging Nevada officials to cancel.

Danny Coyle, a MoveOn.org member who serves on the Executive Board of the Carson City Democratic Central Committee, yesterday offered a resolution calling on the state party to drop Fox, and it passed overwhelmingly among the grassroots Democrats in attendance.

"I am glad and relieved that the Nevada Democratic leadership has come to its senses," Coyle said. "Any kind of relationship with Fox is bad for the party."

At first, Senator Reid defended the decision to work with Fox, reasoning that it might help Democratic candidates reach out to right-leaning Fox viewers. But party activists argued from the start that any connection with Fox was a mistake.

Robert Greenwald, director of the movie Outfoxed, called the final decision a "victory for truth and journalism." Some 280,000 people have viewed Greenwald's new YouTube film "Fox Attacks: Obama" - located with the petition at www.FoxAttacks.com. "By standing up to Fox's right-wing smears," Greenwald said, "the patriotic grassroots, Netroots, Senator Reid, Senator Edwards, and the Nevada Democrats have all worked together to protect one of the most important elements of a free society - the press."

And Eli Pariser, Executive Director of MoveOn.org Civic Action, said he hoped the decision would "set a precedent within the party that Fox should be treated as a right-wing mis-information network, not legitimized as a neutral source of news."

[katmondoo]

1. Richardson also cancelled

[AlCzervik]

2. see thats the free market at work. suck it wingnuts.

[Catchawave]

3. Thanks for putting this together!

I've been getting dribbles from a lot of "happy" sources. :toast:

[babylonsister]

4. Yes, that title is pretty definitive. It's a done deal. nt

[Bryan]

5. All thanks to the Edwards campaign!

I'm envious of his supporters; they can be proud that they support a man who drew a line and implicity dared the rest of the Democrats to choose a side. Great work.

[hellbound-liberal]

6. I'm proud to say that I helped and I will continue to encourage Democratic

politicians to freeze these bastards out. They don't deserve civility and I , for one, am glad to see the Dems show some spine for a change.

[corkhead]

7. how did this one get lost. Rec #5 at 9:30 Great day for real Democrats!

[The Doctor.]

8. Anyone smell a

"Fairness Doctrine" on the grill?

[calimary]

9. Um - now that you mention it, YES! Democrat Ed Markey from Massachusetts

is back in the chairmanship of the House Telecommunications Committee (or Subcommittee - I forget which). The wellbeing of the airwaves has LONG been a pet concern of his. I called his office back in January when there was something of a push for net neutrality - for which he had been urging support. And while I was at it, I did an "oh, by the way..." and put in a plug for the Fairness Doctrine to be reinstated. The staffer who took my call said yes, that WAS INDEED another one of his priorities.

So, guys, the ground is fertile! Plant the seeds! This could be just the beginning, and MAN is it LONG overdue!!! We HAVE to have the Fairness Doctrine restored as the law of the land.

And this successful boycott Pox Noise campaign by the Nevada Dems is utterly SWEET-SWEET-SWEET!!! Cheers to the Daily Kos, AND John Edwards, AND Bill Richardson, AND all the rest of 'em who finally grew stronger spines. It's LONG PAST time that Pox Noise was put in its place - over in some far, distant, poorly-lit, musty, dirt-ridden, bug-infested corner where it deserves to be.

Our Dems have ABSOLUTELY NO BUSINESS fraternizing with Pox Noise for ANY reason. That's like walking around all over town wearing a nice, big, bright "KICK ME" sign on your back. That's like sleeping with the Devil. Hell, it's not LIKE sleeping with the Devil. It IS sleeping with the Devil.

One other thing: it's become obvious by now that ACCESS was EVERYTHING in this White House's up-til-now-successful campaign to bully and intimidate the media. Any reporter or news program or news department that appeared to start getting "uppity" was contacted and threatened with having their White House credentials pulled, and nobody ever returning their calls, and no marquee-value names ever made available for interview any longer if they didn't shut up and stop asking questions and making trouble. And it worked. Nobody DARED risk their precious access to the administration biggies. Sooooooo... it only stands to reason that - if it works for them, it ought to be put to work for US as well. If they can freeze people out, SO CAN WE. Taste of their own medicine. See how they like it. Obama, I believe, started it awhile back - giving all Pox Noise reporters/producers/camera crews/interviewers/shows the cold shoulder. CORRECTLY SO, in my opinion. I think it's the ABSOLUTE BEST thing to do. Deny these schmucks access if they refuse to play fair. Let 'em flounder around. Let the door swing both ways (and smack 'em straight in the face). Then, btw, we can point to them and slime them for being even more one-sided than they already are!!! :rofl: I think the phrase that pays now, should be "hey, WE'LL play fair WHEN YOU DO."

[The Doctor.]

10. Lovely news!

Thanks for the info, I completely agree!

[MindMatter]

11. I'm certainly happy they came to the right answer

but it really sucks that there is a single person anywhere in the Party that didn't immediately understand just how outrageous that whole idea was from the git go.

It is a long road to get this Party back on track. Every little step is sweet.