Considering all the media outlets the Washington Post's E. J. Dionne Jr. make plain why Dems shouldn't participate in Fox News debates.
Fox provided the new liberal critics with a target-rich environment. This, after all, is the network that in January floated a false report that Obama had been educated at a madrassa. The nicely staccato Fox report said of Obama's alleged time in an Islamic school: "The first decade of his life, raised by his Muslim father as a Muslim and was educated in a madrassa. . . . Financed by Saudis, they teach this Wahhabism, which pretty much hates us. The big question is, was that on the curriculum back then?" Talk about Innuendo City. Fox's competition, notably CNN, went after the story and proved it untrue. Obama, as he recounted in his own book, went to an Indonesian public school.
Tell me again: Why do Democrats have an obligation to participate in debates on Fox?
I am an avid reader of conservative magazines such as National Review and the Weekly Standard. But if these two publications teamed up to sponsor a Democratic debate, would anyone accuse Edwards, Obama and Clinton of "blacklisting" if the candidates said, "no, thanks"?
When Republican presidential candidates start accepting Air America as a debate sponsor, we'll talk.
