Tipsheet

Nutroots Wrestle With Fox News

Mary Katharine Ham
Mary Katharine Ham  |  March 08, 2007 12:53 PM

John Edwards will not be attending the first scheduled nationally televised Democratic debate Aug. 14 in Nevada.

Why? Because the debate is being held by Nevada Democrats in partnership with Fox News. Gasp!

The liberal Nutroots have been screaming about the proposed debate-- which would feature a local Fox affiliate questioner, a national Fox host, and a moderator-- for a couple weeks now. You know, because it's outrageous to even contemplate that the leading national cable news channel should host a debate for Democrats.

Why would Nevada Democrats even consider such a thing?

Let's take a look at the figures from last night's cable news ratings:

FOXNEWS O'REILLY 2,297,000
FNC HANNITY/COLMES 1,701,000
FNC GRETA 1,451,000
FNC BRIT HUME 1,427,000
FNC SHEP SMITH 1,317,000
CNN KING 974,000
CNN COOPER 819,000
CNN DOBBS 797,000
MSNBC OLBERMANN 722,000
CNNHN NANCY GRACE 588,000
MSNBC HARDBALL 563,000
CNN PAULA ZAHN 491,000

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Yes, why in the world they go to Fox for the first Democratic debate when the Democrats are trying desperately to win back the White House, which would require winning the votes and confidence of conservative Democrats/Reagan Democrats who may be convinced to ditch out on Republicans this time around? A lot of those folks watch Fox News.

Searer said the decision to partner with Fox, which will pay for someproduction and promotion costs, is part of Nevada Democrats' overallplan to bring new voters into the presidential process and its newearly caucus, scheduled for Jan. 19.
Fox has over 2 million watchers at the height of its primetime? What was the popular margin of victory for Bush in '04? 3,012,497.

Sure, not all the folks watching Fox are Reagan Democrats or moderates or conservative Democrats. Some of them are dedicated Republicans, who won't be convinced to go the other way, but a lot of them are the kind of voters who would be happy to listen to Democrats. A lot of them are the kind of voters who are fed up with business as usual and are willing to listen to any person hawking "a change," which is what all the Democrats want to do. Why pass up the opportunity to bring that message to those people?

There's a chance Fox viewers will notice the Democrats caving to the far Left of their party on this one, and see it as confirmation that Dems just as out-of-touch with normal Americans as Republicans keep saying they are.