Air America vs Faux re: Nevada & other debates (Marc Green letter)

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*Nevada and Fox. During the contretemps last week when 265,000 MoveOn members signed a protest after Nevada Democrats asked Fox Cable News to host the first Democratic presidential debate in that key early state – complainants for some reason thought Fox was pretty conservative – the cable channel came up with a possible solution to the impasse: they’d invite one local Air America host to be among the four panelists. I refused, saying it appeared to be a “token move,” countering with the idea that AAR would co-host it with Fox by having the same number of panelists since our audience sizes – tv vs. radio – were about equal. Fox refused. But Nevada pulled the plug right after Fox chairman Roger Ailes told an ill-timed joke at Barack Obama’s expense. The Las Vegas Review-Journal Article

*”Air America Makes Fox-y Invitation”. This was the HuffingtonPost.com headline on my blog Tuesday describing my letter to Republican state chairs in the four earliest '08 primary and caucus states. In the spirit of Fox’s request to host the Democratic presidential debate and the cable channel's complaint that Nevada’s withdrawal was “anti- speech” and “Stalinist,” I suggested that Air America host those states’ Republican presidential debates. " If you should accept my proposal, Republicans would both embrace free speech and stick it to Stalin at the same time,” I wrote. No response yet…although the blogosphere lit up. (See The Huffington Post , TheDrudgeReport , Alternet , DailyKos and Politico.com.)

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1. One more chance at visibility