Democratic Presidential Candidates Should Ignore Fox NewsPaul Hogarthbyline‚ Feb. 23‚ 2007Liberal bloggers were outraged this week that the Democratic Presidential candidates have agreed to hold a debate in August in Reno – that will be co-sponsored by and aired on Fox News. Moveon.org joined in the fray with a petition campaign urging the Nevada Democratic Party to drop Fox News as a partner. The right-wing TV station has been widely discredited as an arm of the Bush propaganda machine, leading many activists to question why Democrats would legitimize it as an “objective” news source. Meanwhile, Barack Obama is so fed up with the smear campaign that Fox News has used against him in recent weeks that his aides have started shutting out its reporters. In San Francisco, Supervisor Chris Daly chose not to attend the Chronicle’s Editorial interview for last year’s election – knowing full well that they were not going to endorse him and his statements would only give them fodder to mislead voters. While it’s all well and good to engage those with opposite points of view, why do progressives continue to give hostile media sources power by acknowledging their influence? |