A Wrangle After Democrats Shun Fox as Debate Platform

A WRANGLE AFTER DEMOCRATS SHUN FOX AS DEBATE PLATFORM
[SOURCE: New York Times, AUTHOR: Noam Cohen]
A full year and a half ahead of the presidential election, the Fox News Channel has suddenly become an issue in the campaign, even as the network tries to cover that campaign. A Democratic candidates’ debate sponsored by Fox News set for August from Reno, Nev., was abruptly canceled Friday night with a statement from the Nevada Democratic Party and Harry Reid, the majority leader in the Senate. But the reasons given for the cancellation -- anger over comments about Barack Obama made the night before by Fox News chairman Roger Ailes -- give short shrift to an ongoing online campaign by activists at MoveOn.org and by influential blogs like the Daily Kos to have candidates shun the Fox News Channel, which they accuse of being too conservative and too closely allied to the Republican Party. Fox News, which vehemently denies the charges of bias made by its critics, sees itself as the wounded bystander in a Democrat-versus-Democrat battle. The idea of a candidate, party or even party wing running against a news outlet is hardly novel in the United States, which began its history with party-controlled newspapers. In fact, the notion of a news media outlet being open to candidates from across the spectrum is the relative rarity in America.
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/12/business/media/12fox.html
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