Stupid or Psychotic? The Nevada Democratic Party’s Response
Two days ago, I joined hundreds of progressive Democrats urging the Nevada Democratic Party to reconsider their decision to allow FOX News to cover the August 2007 Democratic debates in Reno. As you read (and surely already know) FOX has a longstanding, demonstrable record of hostility to the Democrats, whether it’s referring to the Party as the “Democrat” Party, accusing us of “hating freedom” and being “weak on terrah”. And then of course there is the network’s OUTRAGEOUS behavior when they covered the 2003 debates in Maryland. In short, FOX has proved time and time again to be the last venue where Democrats should appear, which is why people like Barack Obama and Howard Dean refuse to deal with them, and why I was disappointed and angry that the party in Nevada would invite them to cover the debates.
But after receiving the following letter from Teresa Benitez, First Vice-Chair of the Nevada Democratic Party and former Miss Nevada, I went beyond anger and disappointment into Billy Pilgrim territory, and I am now waiting for the Tralfalmadorians to come rescue me from this insane world.
Here’s Ms. Benitez’ response to my email:
Thank you for the email. It provides an opportunity to explain the decision…
FOX News has a viewership of millions, being a consecutive leader in ratings. Most of the time, the network is busy airing very conservative views. Well, the Nevada Democratic Party is going to hold their viewship captive for a hour with our amazing Democratic Candidates. Fox network programming has done a good job of convinving people that conservative values are the only type of values out there. WE GET TO CHANGE THAT!
The Democratic party gets to present our candidates to a demographic that is traditionally disenfranchised from democratic ideals. There will be uninterupted, commentary-free live coverage of our candidates. We can’t contine to preach to the choir and expect to grow support for the party. We have to reach out to new audiences, and capture folks who have been deaf to our message. Remember, President Bush’s approval rating is hovering around 30%. That means that 70% of America is ripe to hear our message. Strategically, Fox Network will get our message and candidates in front of those people! It would be short sighted not to take advatage of this opportunity for exposure.
Sincerely,
Teresa Benitez-Thompson
First Vice Chair,
Nevada State Democratic Party
Am I the only person who thinks Ms. Benitez is hopelessly naive, to the point of delusion?
Well, the Nevada Democratic Party is going to hold their viewship captive for a hour with our amazing Democratic Candidates. Fox network programming has done a good job of convinving people that conservative values are the only type of values out there. WE GET TO CHANGE THAT!
With all due respect, BULLSHIT. FOX will do what they did in 2003: they will headline stories about the debate in the most negative language they can come up with. They will trash our party as being unserious. They will do everything in their power (and that’s a lot of power) to portray Democrats in the worst possible light: that is what FOX does, that is what FOX has always done, and to pretend otherwise is foolishness.
Here’s my letter back to Ms. Benitez:
Am I the only person that thinks Ms. Benitez is
hopelessly naive?I work in a social services agency that deals with domestic violence, and as you may imagine a lot of our clients are women. One of the biggest obstacles to helping these victims is their inability to recognize what has happened to them. These victims are consistently dropping charges, refusing to testify, and returning to their abusers because they don’t know anything else. We hear excuses like “he said he was sorry”, “he said it will never happen again”, “he had a hard day at work, i shouldn’t have provoked him”, and the results are always the same: two weeks later, that same woman is back at the agency with a brand new shiner, making more excuses for her abuser.
This email from Ms. Benitez reads a lot like those excuses.
“Remember, President Bush’s approval rating is hovering around 30%. That means that 70% of America is ripe to hear our message. Strategically, Fox Network will get our message and candidates in front of those people! It would be short sighted not to take advatage of this opportunity for exposure.”
With all due respect, this is so blinkered, I almost don’t know where to start. How about we start with the premise that Bush’s low approval ratings have anything to do with how FOX’s coverage? The fact is, despite President Bush’s ghastly approval ratings, FOX news has consistently portrayed him as popular with the voters, good for the country, and in glowing
terms. Right up to the day of the elections, FOX News was warning that the Democrats were “in for a surprise”.Or to be more current, here’s FOX News, JUST YESTERDAY, trashing the Nevada Caucus:
Honestly, how much more obvious can FOX’s biases be?
Onto statements two and three:
“That means that 70% of America is ripe to hear our message. Strategically, Fox Network will get our message and candidates in front of those people!”
If 70% of America is ready for our message, common sense dictates that you don’t entrust that message to a company that utterly opposes that message. Also, what makes you think that FOX News will not act strategically as well?
Think of the debates as an advertisement for the Democratic Platform (which is exactly accurate). FOX News supports Bush and the Republicans all the way: expecting FOX News to deliver our message accurately is like expecting the Pepsi to do Cola-Cola’s advertising. Or expecting Miss Minnesota to argue why Miss Nevada is more deserving of the Miss America crown.
“It would be short sighted not to take advatage of this opportunity for exposure.”
Although a lot of people believe there is no such thing as bad publicity, the opposite is true. Just ask John Kerry about the impact of the Swift Boat attacks: lots of exposure, all of it negative, and in the end he lost the election. No, what would be short-sighted, Ms. Benitez, would be to let an important Democratic event be carried by the network most opposed to the Democratic party in the name of “exposure”.
This is a massive mistake, Ms. Benitez. When FOX News
does the inevitable and trashes our party before, during, and after the debates, I hope that the people responsible for this horrible decision are held accountable for their errors.Please reconsider.
Brendan Skwire
