http://www.dailykos.com/story/2004/7/27/123143/274Unfortunately, the 2004 Democratic National Convention might go down in history as the first time that a party has allowed another party to broadcast its spin directly from the Convention in the guise of a 24-hour "news" network.
FoxNews and its pro-Republican bias has hit an embarrassing cresendo at the Democratic Convention. It's persistent and shameless. Surprisingly, Howie Kurtz provides a good rendition of what's going on:
BOSTON--I was going to talk about Fox News's coverage of Al Gore's speech, but the fair-and-balanced network blew off the former veep's speech in favor of Bill O'Reilly.
O'Reilly interrupted his segment to toss to the Gore address for about 40 seconds, then started to rebut Gore. When Jimmy Carter took the podium, Fox joined it late and got out way early. Instead, viewers were treated to an interview with Republican activist Bill Bennett. While Carter was talking, Sean Hannity told Bennett: "I call this the reinvention convention. One of the things the Democrats want to do is create a false perception of who they are."
How would Fox fans know, since they weren't able to hear Gore (the man who won the popular vote last time) or former president Carter? What happened to "we report, you decide"? While Carter continued, Hannity played the video of Teresa Heinz Kerry telling a reporter to "shove it."
This is the kind of thing that makes critics question whether Fox has a Republican agenda.
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But virtually pulling the plug on live coverage of Gore and Carter? How about letting them speak and then ripping them, or critiquing them, or whatever. The network is supposed to be covering the convention, not just using it as a backdrop.
Well, at least Hannity and Colmes put a Democrat on soon afterward. Jerry Springer.
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The good folks at Newshounds have been providing an excellent play-by-play of the FoxNews spin. Here's a good sample from their coverage of Bush & Friends (aka Fox & Friends):
1. E.D. Hill reviewed Clinton's comment: We tried Them for 12 years, Us for 8 years and Them for 4 years, and We are better. She indicated that the democrats were set up by the republicans on both ends. (Her inane attempt to negate Clinton's comment did not come across at all.
2. Teresa Kerry's "shove it" comment was repeated with a vague reference to something she said about Ted Kennedy in the 1970's.
3. On Clinton's criticism of tax cuts for the rich, the criticism was that Clinton should give back his tax cuts, along with a give-back by Ben Affleck with his 1.5 million in tax cuts, when they criticized him later.
4. RNC Chairman, Ed Gillespie, continued the criticism with: Bush inherited a recession; Kerry will increase taxes for everyone, not just the top 1%; he cited the great Bush economy stats; (??) and that the RNC has 20 years of the Kerry record that the democrats won't talk about; that Bush will grab the 9/11 issues in the Commission Report, some of which he is already implementing through executive order. (With no specifics cited, or the fact that Bush tried to block the formation of the commission in the first place, delaying the report for three years.)
5. Fox showed a Newsweek cover with John Kerry in a cleaning suit from a tour of a space facility, commenting on how funny Kerry looked.
6. When Tad Devine, Kerry Campaign Adviser, countered Steve Doocy with some positive statements about Carter and the Kerrys, Doocy said, "See that ferry over there? Fox News would like to send you wherever it goes."
7. Chris Andersen, author of "American Evita," a book about Hillary, provided the fodder for a nasty discussion about Hillary, using her description of Kerry as "a serious man, serious job, serious time." A Kerry presidency could affect her career "big time." She's "not enthusiastic, she's over the top, grating, highly intense." Kerry is "not doing her any favors." Also, the cattiest comments of all, "Hillary didn't refer to Bill as her husband. There's a little tension between them. The reason she married him is that she knew he would be president."The question is, what should the Democrats do about it? Some have suggested that Democrats should simply boycott appearances on FoxNews. This strategy would undoubtedly backfire. First, it would give FoxNews carte blanche to say what it wants without any modicum of rebuttal. Second, it would give FoxNews the opportunity to spout on and on about how Democrats are afraid to debate their positions. (Oddly enough, FoxNews seems to only invite those Democrats with the weakest debating skills.)
The best strategy is the Mario Cuomo strategy. Go on the air, but turn the tables on the FoxNews "journalist." Turn the spotlight on the interviewer's bias and his channel's bias. This would give Democrats a chance to rebut on the Republicans' station. It would also give FoxNews viewers a better understanding of what it is that they're watching: shameless partisan spin. Could someone please implement this strategy? Aggressively? Consistently?
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