So Kucinich is cozying up to Fox

[Proud2BAmurkin]

DK is looking for attention by criticizing Democrats who trash Fox? Nice move there, Emo.

http://kucinich.us/node/3532

[AlCzervik]

1. i don't think he's cozing up to Faux but what i do think is that the only way he gets

camera time is being at a debate.

[rebel with a cause]

2. Whatever, I don't think he should have done it.

but that is just my opinion and nothing to do with him as a person.

[pop goes the weasel]

3. I think he is right

Talking only to people who already agree with you will never get you converts. A man of peace has to be willing to speak to those who might see him as an enemy.

[liberalnurse]

14. That's not what Edwards and the others are doing....

They are boycotting Fox because Fox is intentionally self-serving; they distort ,manipulate and re-create the facts and and are not providing this debate in good faith....more like being opportunistic.

Kucinnich is using the resources available to him.....that's okay....He serves a different purpose or role in these Primaries.

[tkmorris]

4. I don't think he is

It's just a maneuver on his part to set himself apart from his primary competition. It's remarkably astute for someone like him I'd say, but it's disappointing too. It's a calculating move, done by a man I would prefer to see as an idealist with principles. Dennis knows the real reasons behind Edwards refusal, and the issues with Fox in general. Ignoring that and painting it as avoidance of debate is a very political move, from a guy I wanted to believe was above such nonsense.

[mmonk]

5. I like DK

but disagree with him on this. There's no reason to pretend Fox is news.

[WilliamPitt]

7. It was a nationally broadcast debate he got invited to.

If he gets invited to more than two others after this, I'll be stunned...and he doesn't have the campaign funds to be able to lightly pass on free media opportunities.

[mmonk]

8. I understand.

[WilliamPitt]

6. This was a debate Dennis got invited to. There won't be many more.

He has every right to be pissed. This debate was a chance to swat down the "unelectable" tag he has lived with since first declaring for the Oval in 2003. And, oh yeah, none of these other high-flying candidates want to answer to him on Iraq. He stands alone on the prime issue...so they'll probably try to make sure he stays invisible.

Dennis needed this debate, whether it be run by Fox or the Devil Himself. He doesn't have the scratch to do a national introduction (again) without free-media opportunities like this. And, PS, nothing would be more healthy for "Fox viewers" than to hear him. He's right to be pissed.

[mmonk]

9. I'll have to donate then.

I support his positions on the issues.

[SaveElmer]

26. He has "lived" with an unelectable tag he created himself...nt

[ScreamingMeemie]

10. Nice move Emo??

:shrug: Nice.

[Omphaloskepsis]

11. He is looking for attention by getting on TV..

He knows he won't get nominated. But he has a very good message and he is willing to spread it on that shithole of a network.

[WilliamPitt]

12. Jesus

:eyes:

[ScreamingMeemie]

13. Seconded.

:eyes:

[trumad]

17. I guess it's sort of a sell your soul to the devil kind of situation?

Fuck Fox!

[WilliamPitt]

22. No

It's a run-for-the-Oval-without-a-"raise-$50k-every-24-hours"-campaign-fundraising-machine kind of situation, said situation unfortunately being the main qualifying benchmark these days, the thing separating candidates who are 'real' from candidates who 'have no chance' in the all-devouring media opinion.

Some think the pundits disregard Dennis for his looks, or for his opinions, and there may be some truth to that. Having seen the media beast from inside, however, I can tell you that the pundits write candidates off, more often than not, based on their bank accounts. If you can't afford a mass-media buy in California and/or New York and/or New England, just for starters, they'll decide you have no chance and will pretend you are invisible.

That's the obnoxious circular logic of modern politics. Ideas don't matter nearly as much as having the scratch to make a splash in TV or radio...i.e., the media's arena. Ergo, the 'real' candidates are the best fundraisers, who take money from everywhere, including the owners/sponsors of the pundit-broadcasters...so when one of them inevitably 'wins,' they're already bought. It's a frictionless machine.

I have my issues with Dennis, but I know for a fact that he'd drive for hours through a howling blizzard to speak with two people in a phone booth, if he thought it would move the pile an eyelash. Candidates who refuse to be bought, like Dennis, don't have the luxury of disdaining Fox, and operate on the hope that ideas might be able to trump bloated campaign warchests if given a chance to be heard.

This was free national exposure for the guy who was right on Iraq, the guy no other candidate wants to hear from on that issue, and now its gone. The network hardly matters when all you have in your wallet is ideas and ideals, when you won't be bought, when that frictionless machine can't abide your refusal to play the game and thus deems you doomed.

It was a battery of cameras and free exposure for a candidate who will have five hundred million campaign bucks to buy space within the media vortex when they start selling Frigidaires in Hades.

Dennis won't get many more chances like this...and really, man, is NBC (General Electric) or ABC (Disney, makers of the blame-Clinton-for-9/11 mockudrama) or CNN (AOL/TimeWarner) or the others really any better than Fox? Fox is at least brazen in its bias, while the others hide behind their insidious false piety/objectivity. I like enemies I can see.

It was cameras, and a free forum, and the network logo is a small concern. (imho)

[trumad]

23. Hey look--- I'm with you about DK...

I wish he looked like Robert Redford and spoke like JFK. He'd be the next President.

DK:

"I'm prepared to discuss the war, health care, trade, or any other issue anytime, anywhere, with any audience, answering any question from any media. And any candidate who won't shouldn't be President of the United States."

I agree with that to a point--- but I also agree that it's time to isolate Fox news because of their bad behavior to the Democratic Party. As you can see here on DU, there are dozens of posts that highlight that bad behavior. Shall we let them get away with it forever? OR---should we start slapping back? This is a slap back and in MHO, I applaud it.

NOW--- If the Dems seek to exclude DK in any future debates, I'll be screaming just as loud as you.

Look---I see you working and I get where DK and you are coming from---- but.... it's time we go after Fox and Murdoch.

[WilliamPitt]

25. Honestly, Fox is a cipher as far as I am concerned.

Their viewship is a fused loop, the True Believers seeking affirmation, and the loop isn't growing. Fox's audience is the 25% of the population that still give Bush high approval ratings on polls; he won't drop below 25% because of them, and you're not going to sway them. If Jesus H. Christ swooped down from Heaven and denounced Bush from the top of the Capitol dome, Fox would ignore it and that 25% would dismiss other news reports of it as more evidence of liberal bias in the media.

Olbermann has turned O'Reilly into a national joke, while Coulter finally (!!!) blew her own gig, so that network is pretty much "gotten," in my humble o. They're like the Washington Times; their funding far outstrips any viewership/readership they enjoy, because wingers bankroll it to keep the GOP base in their mushroom state (kept in the dark and fed shit). Christ, even Buchanan doesn't do their shows anymore.

I applaud the Dems for even considering having a debate on Fox. It's a worthy reach into that 25% base; chip off 1% and you can swing an election. But methinks we have more important targets to focus on.

[mmonk]

15. I respect DK's attempt at getting all the exposure he needs.

That being said, at some point in this country, we have to say to networks that spread distortion, character assassination, and basically champion lies, that they no longer should be able to present themselves as a news organization on our airways.

[Annces]

16. He is just calling out candidates for not debating - he does not like Fox either

“No one is further removed from Fox’s political philosophy than I am, but fear should not dictate decisions that affect hundreds of millions of Americans and billions of others around the world who are starving for real leadership.”

[mmonk]

18. We understand.

We just don't agree that the nation tune into Fox for political discussion.

[H2O Man]

19. Confrontation with an "expert"

(from WINS radio on February 18, 1965)

Gordon Hall: ....Malcolm has no place to go, which is why he's floundering so badly. For example, he's been breaking bread with the communists downtown --

Malcolm X: What communists, what communists have I been --

Gordon Hall: Socialist Workers Party --

Malcolm X: You are absolutely out of your mind. ... I speak anywhere, I spoke in London, England, and I spoke in a church in Rochester a couple nights ago. Does that make me a Methodist? Just because you speak somewhere, doesn't make you that. You speak to the public, and you speak on any platform .... If speaking on the socialist platform makes me a socialist, then when I speak in a Methodist church --

Gordon Hall: It was a communist platform --

Malcolm X: I was in Selma, Alabama, last week, speaking in Martin Luther King's church. Does that make me a follower of Martin Luther King? No, your line of reasoning, sir, doesn't fit me."

[trumad]

20. Fine--If DK wants to speak at Fox headquarters--- speak away

but don't get all huffy when the others say FU Fox.

[mmonk]

21. There's no way to confront their pre-debate or post debate

commentary and spin.

[stuartrida]

24. I'd still hold my nose and vote for Kucinich

but he'd be a weak president.