Trouble With Fox

Ah, the renowned left-wing consistency. Let their party poobahs stage an August primary debate event in Las Vegas, and retain Fox News to televise it, and the nutroots have yet another cow. In this case, demanding of any and all conceivable Donk presidential aspirants that they boycott the debate until the hated Fox was dropped in favor of...well, just about any other cable news outlet.

Initially only Opie Edwards knuckled under (ironic, given that his perpetual campaign meme is "two Americas"), but within a few days all the others had fallen into line like bowling pins, and the event was formally canceled. The denizens Sin City are not happy:

Hard-core liberals can't stand the Fox News Channel. Passing a television that's tuned to the conservative favorite forces many of them to close their eyes, cover their ears and scream, "La la la la la la la la la!" Then they dash to their computers and fire off 2,500 e-mails condemning the outlet, none of which are ever read.

But liberals' aversion to Fox News has finally gone over the top. The Nevada Democratic Party had agreed to let the right-tilting network co-sponsor, of all things, an August debate in Reno between Democratic presidential candidates. Party officials were serious about drawing national attention to the state's January presidential caucus, the country's second in the 2008 nominating process. What better way for the party to reach conservative and "values" voters who might consider changing allegiances?

But the socialist, Web-addicted wing of the Democratic Party was apoplectic. The prospect of having to watch Fox News to see their own candidates would have been torture in itself. So they set the blogosphere aflame with efforts to kill the broadcast arrangement, or at least have all the candidates pull out of the event. Before Friday, the opportunistic John Edwards was the only candidate to jump on that bandwagon. ...

The approach of outfits such as MoveOn.org is so juvenile it's laughable. Imagine if every political organization created litmus tests for news organizations before agreeing to appear on their programming. Republicans would have boycotted PBS, CBS, NBC, ABC, National Public Radio and The Associated Press decades ago.

And been laughed at and ridiculed and lampooned as kook fringe crypto-fascist weirdos unable to handle "the truth" and best left to flee to some isolated mountain top to await the rapture or mother ship or the black fleet in Sto-Vo-Kor. But not the extreme Left; no, they're locked in a life-or-death struggle with EEEEEEEEVIL, and Roger Ailes is their Beast & False Prophet, and he must be cast into the Lake of Fire & Brimstone for all eternity before Paradise (i.e. free universal health care) can descend.

Perhaps the notion that Fox News is the highest rated (by far) cable news channel might have been a factor in the original Donk decision. Also, as the LVRJ pointed out, maximizing the chance of flipping "red" voters (assuming the tech wizards at Fox could damp out the subliminal sound of thousands of goose-stepping boots in unison that follows Mrs. Clinton around wherever she goes). But no; Fox is the enemy, Fox is the infidel media, and no Dem candidate shalt have anything to do with Fox. So say they all.

Speaking for myself, I'm not surprised. I also don't see how this hurts the Dem field (i.e. Hillary) all that much, since tHEiR obeisance to the far left wing has been worn on the party's collectiv(ist) sleeve like a hairlip for years now and it didn't avert their return to congressional power last November. Indeed, some, such as El Rushbo, think that the whole thing was a setup by the Democrats to try and de-legitimize Fox, part of an ongoing anti-Fox campaign going back to when Bill Clinton threw his calculated tantrum at Chris Wallace on Fox News Sunday last year.

Could be either; could be both. Neither would surprise me. But I would differ with the LVRJ on one thing: I wouldn't characterize the nutroots eruption as "juvenile"; I think it's better described as intolerant. It is a window into the black souls of these people as to how they look at America and those within it who disagree with them - and what they will try to do to us should they get unchecked power back in next year's election.

It's only "juvenile" until the "child" gains power to do more than just "close their eyes, cover their ears and scream, 'La la la la la la la la la!'" When Mrs. Clinton enters the Oval Office in twenty-two months, a gig cancellation will be just the beginning of sorrows for Fox News, and for "red state" America.