Dems in Uproar over Fox Plan to Cover Debate

by Joe Garofoli

The first presidential primary is 11 months away, but liberals are arguing among themselves over how to best reach new voters -- and whether to cooperate with one of their biggest media nemeses. Their dilemma: Should we Fox? "Fox," as in partner with the Fox News Channel. Liberal bloggers and the online political powerhouse MoveOn.org launched a campaign Thursday to persuade the Nevada Democratic Party to boot Fox News as the broadcaster of the state's August Democratic presidential debate. The reason, according to an online letter MoveOn sent to 2 million of its members Thursday, is that "Fox is a mouthpiece for the Republican Party, not a legitimate news channel. The Democratic Party of Nevada should drop Fox as its partner for the presidential primary debate." Joining the chorus Thursday was liberal filmmaker Robert Greenwald, the director of the anti-Fox film, "Outfoxed," who released a video online of Fox's coverage of Democratic candidates. But the Nevada party organizers -- and Democratic National Committee Chairman Howard Dean -- said Thursday that while they may not think much of Fox's reporting, they want to reach out to viewers of the largest cable news network, one with double the number of prime-time viewers of CNN. And one whose believability is much higher with Republicans than Democrats, according to a 2005 study by the Project for Excellence in Journalism. So why not reach out, party officials say? At a time when President Bush's approval rating hovers around 30 percent, there may be disgruntled conservative voters to be found there. The network has broadcast Democratic debates before, and is close to announcing a second debate it will air in the next week. And Fox's reaction to this controversy? They're content to watch liberals fight from a distance, and network officials hope that the buzz will send more viewers to their debate broadcast. Presidential debates ordinarily double their audience, and this quarrel could pad that number with those curious about Fox. Already, MoveOn has accused Fox of trying to skew the election through its misleading reporting on Democratic candidates, particularly Sens. Barack Obama, D-Ill., and Hillary Rodham Clinton, D-N.Y. Last month, Fox reported -- and later backed off its report -- that Obama attended a radical Muslim school in Indonesia as a child. It was widely debunked by other media outlets, including CNN. In a Feb. 5 appearance on the Fox News program, "Hannity and Colmes," Fox News commentator Dick Morris said Clinton and former President Bill Clinton were behind the smear. But when pressed by co-host Alan Colmes for what evidence he had, Morris said, "No, I just -- obviously they were." And some of the network's hosts have mocked Obama's middle name, "Hussein." Bloggers like Matt Stoller of mydd.com are more worried about what the network's post-debate spin could be. When Fox broadcast a Democratic candidate debate in September 2003, Stoller noted that the network's post-debate story was headlined, "Democratic Candidates Offer Grim View of America." It cut away early from the show, Stoller said, giving conservative pundit William Bennett first crack at post-debate analysis. "This is part of an ongoing struggle to convince Democrats and journalists to stop taking Fox News seriously as a credible news outlet," Stoller wrote in an e-mail this week to supporters and others. "It's also part of a tug of war with the media and within the Democratic Party itself, one that will continue to play out over the course of the 2008 campaign." For now, the Democratic Party's leaders are ready to work with Fox even if they get burned by the network that uses the tagline "fair and balanced" for its coverage. The lead player is Dean, who was elected as party chair on a strategy to appeal to voters in all states, a strategy that was supported by many liberal bloggers. "This is about talking to voters, not a network," Dean said Thursday. "While the Fox News Channel rarely has coverage that is fair and balanced, we believe that Fox viewers, who are potential voters, should have the opportunity to see a debate between our candidates. These forums provide an important unfiltered opportunity for potential voters to see Democrats without the bias of the network." MoveOn organizer Adam Green told The Chronicle in an e-mail: "Everybody supports reaching out to new people. Fox is giving Democrats one day of news coverages specifically to have legitimacy while smearing Democrats the other 364 days this year." Green noted that 75 percent of the 10,000 MoveOn members in Nevada said the party shouldn't be partnering with Fox. Nevada Democratic Party spokeswoman Kirsten Searer sought to tamp down concerns about Fox's influence on the broadcast. Each major decision about the debate, Searer said, "from the background on the stage to the debate moderator, will be reached by mutual agreement of the state party, Western Majority Project (a coalition of western Democratic politicians) and Fox News. "A 50-state strategy means talking to every American. The debate in August is not an endorsement of Fox. Instead, it is an effort to reach out to Fox viewers. We will not win elections if we don't win over new people." Fox News is treating this as an issue for Democrats to work out among themselves. Marty Ryan, Fox's executive producer of political programming, shrugged off complaints about the network's coverage cited in Thursday's campaign. "That's the great thing about America. You're free to have those opinions," Ryan said. "Besides, they're probably drawing more attention to our coverage of the debate." Jane Fleming, executive director of Young Democrats of America, appears as a guest on Fox News two or three times a week, often as the lone liberal tangling with some of Fox's conservative personalities. She doesn't support, as some have advocated, freezing out the network -- refusing to appear on-air as a liberal counterpoint. "The thing is, if we don't appear, there are plenty of Democrats Fox will find who aren't really Democrats -- they're just people who will agree with the host all the time," Fleming said. "We need to be on there pushing back." © 2007 Hearst Communications Inc. Discuss This Article click here... ###