There are no regular Fox viewers voting in the primaries or attending Democratic caucuses. Or at least not enough to matter.

And this will make sure it stays that way.

The last two Presidental elections were pretty close. Yeah I suppose your right Jim, it won’t matter if you could peel some votes away from the republicans.

It’s no canard. The liberalism and the liberal bias of reporters and editors is beyond (legitimate) question. Add to that the frequent comments from “journalists” who defend and advocate “crusader” or “activist” journalism just as icing on the cake. It’s no canard.

Fox happens to be less liberal than the others and even provides conservative programming and as a result is loathed by the rest of the “journalistic” community as heretics and traitors.

Fox (like conservative talk radio in past years) has served a market that has existed but which the liberal media neglected (refused) to serve.

Democrats appear on Fox News shows all the time, sometimes singly, sometimes with a Republican. Those Democrats seem to have no problems answering the questions posed to them. If there’s an obvious slant in the tone or wording of the questions, it does not seem to affect them.

Perhaps many Democrats don’t watch Fox regularly, but that is immaterial. For a one-time event like a debate, anyone interested in the primaries would watch, regardless of network.

And let’s be clear, if it were not for the complaints and threats of the netroots, every one of those candidates would have appeared on that debate and I bet they would have comported themselves well.

As far as what is bad about appearing on Fox it’s not that they will favor one over another. The job of the moderator of that “debate” will be to phrase all questions in such a way as to make all the candidates look bad. It is the only goal that Fox could possibly have in mind. Then they have the footage to use against whoever does wind up being the candidate.

The so-called MSM do lean left – that is well established. It’s not nearly as left-wing as the right wing claims, but it’s to the left nonetheless. This is particularly true with editorial content.

Why do you think Fox news is so popular? Why do you think their ratings trounce almost everyone elses? It’s because they are serving an audience that the MSM has neglected. Some of the traditional media outlets have realized this – notably CNN with the hiring of Glenn Beck. If the traditional media would add more conservative voices, they might hurt Fox’s numbers and force them to move more toward the center.

Personally, I think bowing out from this debate hurts the democrats and makes it appear they can’t face a potentially hostile forum. I don’t understand how the candidates could be made to look bad since the debate only has Democrats. Unfairness in a debate usually means that the debate favors one debater over another, but all the debaters are Democrats. Is the accusation that somehow Fox will favor one candidate over another? It doesn’t make sense. If there were Republicans participating I could understand that accusations of bias might be logical, but in this case? No. The netroots hate Fox and until the primaries are over, they have the candidates by the short-and-curly’s. Once one jumped shipped, they were all obliged to in order not to lose favor. Pretty sad, actually.

Ok. I’ll buy that if you admit that the liberal MSM is a canard of the right, which they use to discredit any media story they find unflattering to their positions.

Black is white, too, then.

“Corporate right-wing media” is the distorted lie of far-left extremism.

I can just see the headlines now. “CBC exists!” Oy.

To try to claim that the Congressional Black Caucus is not extremely leftist is just water carrying for the leftisit. There is probably not a more liberal group in politics that the CBC.

Of course, if you listened to the “impartial” reporting of CNN, MSNBC, and the three networks, one would barely know that the CBC exist, let alone the amount of power it has or how liberal it is.

The only talking not done by candidates are moderators who only ask questions. So, how, exactly, is Fox going to influence or spin the debate?

Entropy,

If you’d ease off of your condescending attitude and look up the word ‘moderator’ you’d probably be able to answer your own question.

Fox just seems to go out of its way to not actually report anything resembling fair news. But maybe the blunt approach is better than the more subtle pro-government/big-business bias we get from the other networks?

carpeicthus Says:

Yeah, but it was Fox and the CBC. That seems to send the right message: Fox on the right, the CBC on the left.

carpeicthus,

A candidates reason for debating is that a debate allows them the opportunity to put out their message and show the differences between themselves and their opponants in an effort to get votes.

When it comes to Dem. v. Rep. debates what you suggest should be used in at least one debate BUT to think putting in a moderator who favors a ‘side’ that’s not participating in the debate is just silly.

Would you objection to Air America and CBS hosting a Republican debate?

One wonders if kritter and SteveK have ever seen an actual debate. The people doing the debating do 95% of the talking. The only talking not done by candidates are moderators who only ask questions. So, how, exactly, is Fox going to influence or spin the debate?

This is just a case of spineless candidates caving. If I were the CBC, I’d be mighty pissed about now.