Since I’ve been vocal in castigating the Republicans for manufactured outrages like John Kerry “insulting” the troops or Barack Obama saying their lives were “wasted,” I have to speak up about an equal amount of stupidity and utterly phony indignation being demonstrated by Harry Reid and the Arizona Democrats,
For those who may not know, Reid and the state crew of Dems in Arizona have decided to back out of a scheduled, Fox News sponsored Presidential debate in August. Why? Here’s what they said in their letter to Fox:
Ailes must have really said something beyond the pale about one of the candidates, huh? Well it turns out the remarks that “went too far” were made about Barack Obama and here’s what he said:
A lot of the left wing blogosphere is now pretending that Ailes called Obama a terrorist when the joke was clearly, CLEARLY about George Bush. Not only that, but it was a pretty funny joke (unlike Kerry’s).
Harry Reid knows that. The Arizona Dems know it. They’re pretending to be offended and cancelling the debate under pressure from entities like MoveOn and Daily Kos, who ALSO know that Ailes wasn’t calling Obama a terrorist but who just wanted any excuse to pull the debate away from Fox.
Now whether Fox is the best organization to sponsor a Democratic debate is a fair question (personally, it wouldn’t bother me. I think they’d be bending over backwards NOT to appear biased and give the Dems ammunition), but to use this joke as an excuse is completely disingenuous and hurts the credibility of the party. Come on, Dems. You’re acting like total douchebags. Knock it off.
The whole ‘Obama sounds like Osama’ idiocy is beyond juvenile. The head of a ‘news’ network was a moron to perpetuate it in a public statement. In doing so, he showed disdain for the whole issue. It wasn’t ‘just a joke’. It was a deliberate jab, it was rude, and I’m glad the Dems pulled out. They’re serving notice that up with this kind of crap they will not put.
It wasn’t a jab at Obama, it was a jab at Bush. He was calling Bush stupid. That’s what makes the Dems’ reaction extra ridiculous. Jon Stewart could have made this exact joke.
The thing is, having a Democratic debate on Faux News is idiotic; it’d be like hosting the Republican debate on Air America. Why would any sane Democrat agree to this in the first place?
Nevada Nevada Nevada Nevada. I knew that. I don’t know where the hell Arizona came from. Could someone report this thread to a mod and ask them to change the thread title.
Really, not ‘clearly’ at all. If you read the rest of his ‘jokes’, they are simply regurgitations of the same old sameolds that the righties have spouted pretending they’re ‘humour’. He was speaking to his own kind and playing to them. Nice attempt at dissembling, but he intended it as a hit on Obama.
From the time it was announced that the debates were going to be held on Fox there has been an uproar.
No, I don’t think they should have agreed to have the debates on Fox but they should have just pulled out. It was stupid of them to think there wouldn’t be drama about it.
Here’s what some bloggers are saying
"Over the past three weeks or so, the progressive movement – bloggers, Moveon.org, grassroots activists, filmmakers – pressured the Nevada Democratic Party to drop Fox News as the host of a presidential debate in August. In pursuing this short campaign, we made two basic arguments that were eventually accepted by party leaders.
First, we argued that Fox News is not a news channel, but a propaganda outlet that regularly distorts, spins, and falsifies information. Second, Fox News is heavily influenced or even controlled by the Republican Party itself. As such, we believe that Fox News on the whole functions as a surrogate operation for the GOP. Treating Fox as a legitimate news channel extends the Republican Party’s ability to swift-boat and discredit our candidates. In other words, Fox News is a direct pipeline of misinformation from the GOP leadership into the traditional press…"
Rest of the article
There are many reasons why the debates shouldn’t be held on Fox including Murdoch’s admission that his corp tried to manipulate the media regarding Iraq. They should never have agreed in the first place.
Here’s a clip from the speech from YouTube, in case seeing him say it helps make it clearer.
At first I had a hard time reading it any other way that Quiddity does, but then I looked for the transcript of the speech and thought Dio’s made more sense. Now I’m not sure either way, but that might have more to do with the fact that I need to get some sleep than anything else.
For six years now, I have disagreed with almost everything you say, but yet you are one of my favorite posters. C’mere, you big lug!
Politically speaking, I got nothin’. I’ve been spending all my political information cost/time lately thinking about who would make the best primary candidates for either side.