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New Yorker, Washington Post

Why the Democratic National Committee Is Banning Fox News From Its Presidential Debates

Mar 6, 2019  •  Post A Comment

The Democratic National Committee is barring Fox News Channel from televising any of its candidate debates during the 2019-2020 cycle, citing revelations published by The New Yorker detailing the cable network’s close ties to the Trump administration.

The revelations are part of an article currently appearing online as part of the March 11 issue of The New Yorker, under the headline “The Making of the Fox News White House.” The article includes the subhed “Fox News has always been partisan. But has it become propaganda?”

The Washington Post cites a statement today from DNC Chairman Tom Perez in which he says: “Recent reporting in The New Yorker on the inappropriate relationship between President Trump, his administration and Fox News has led me to conclude that the network is not in a position to host a fair and neutral debate for our candidates. Therefore, Fox News will not serve as a media partner for the 2020 Democratic primary debates.”

The Post adds: “Winning the exclusive rights to televise the 12 candidate debates is considered a prestigious prize in the television business. The debates typically draw large audiences — the first Republican debate in August 2015 attracted a record 24 million viewers — and are a vehicle for promoting the networks’ news programs.”

The 12 scheduled debates begin in June, and Fox News is among the networks that have submitted proposals to the DNC to televise one of the debates. The DNC has already awarded the rights to the first two, to NBC (along with sister networks MSNBC and Telemundo) and CNN.

The Post quotes a statement from Fox News Senior Vice President Bill Sammon in which he says: “We hope the DNC will reconsider its decision to bar Chris Wallace, Bret Baier and Martha MacCallum, all of whom embody the ultimate journalistic integrity and professionalism, from moderating a Democratic presidential debate. They’re the best debate team in the business and they offer candidates an important opportunity to make their case to the largest TV news audience in America, which includes many persuadable voters.”

6 Comments

  1. Nothing to hide here says the DNC.

  2. Correct move.

  3. Because as we all know, CNN, MSNBC, CNBC surely weren’t shills for the Obama administration.

  4. And CNN wasn’t in Hillary’s back pocket.. this is getting ridiculous!

  5. The real reason may be that Fox won’t give the candidates the questions before the debate; like Donna Brazile of CNN gave to Hillary Clinton. I wonder if the DNC has already decided who will win the Democratic nomination? Last election, Bernie Sanders was totally shafted by the DNC. I hope they don’t do it again, like they did in 2016, as there are many good candidates running and I’d hate that we don’t really have a choice. What would happen if one of the “minor” candidates had some great debates and the DNC chosen one didn’t. Would they still push for their chosen one, like they did in the last election? Or would they demand that their chosen one again be given the questions b/4 the debate?

  6. “Skeptical Observer” is wrong, since it seems to be coming out that Fox News gave Trump the questions prior to their debates during the 2016 primaries.

    Aside from that, I’ll note that Fox News is positioned as a partisan news service, just as MSNBC is. I didn’t see the Republicans letting MSNBC sponsor their debates in 2016, and it is equally reasonable for the Democrats to steer clear of Fox News.

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