Navel-Gazing at the New York Times on Fox Debates

The New York Times, who I usually have higher regard for, wastes a lot of front-page real estate this morning dissecting the decisions of Hillary Clinton, John Edwards and Barack Obama to skip a joint-sponsored Congressional Black Caucus / Fox News Democratic Presidential Debate this September.

While the history lesson on how the debate began (Fox gave the BCC its most reasonable offer in 2003 when they pitched the debate),  speaks well to Fox's strategy, the rest of the article just carries on way too long in overstating what should be obvious.

The candidates who have so far declined have more to gain in street cred by standing up to the evil Republican bastards at Roger Ailes' network than they do from the extra TV coverage.  Since the Democratic party already has the black vote in its back pocket, what's to gain from showing up?

On the issue of Fox's objectivity, I tend to side more with Al Franken's view of the counter-argument (that the Mainstream Media shifts left).  

Asking whether there is a liberal or conservative bias to the mainstream media is a little like asking whether al Qaeda uses too much oil in their hummus. The problem with al Qaeda is that they're trying to kill us.

Al Franken in Lies (and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them)

A similar argument can be made for Fox.  While they certainly have a higher proportion of conservative-leaning commentators than most of the other major news outlets, the thing that I find most annoying about their coverage is the tabloidy nature of it.  

The screaming, gratuitious argumentative nature of their questioning and the almost-obscene amount of flag-waving they do for certain news segments cuts through any illusion that they are there for any other purpose than to rile people up rather than to inform them.

But cheers to the Democrats for winning some easy political points in deciding not to show up.  While I think that it's childish, I have to bear in mind that three of the four Republican candidates in the South Carolina debate last week denied believing in evolution.

You gotta dance with them what brung you.