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Curing What Ailes You

Sorry I have been rather remiss in my blogging duties the last couple of days but sometimes you just need a break from it all otherwise you'd go stark raving mad. Not that there hasn't been much to discuss this week. There was the news that the temporary surge in Iraq might not be temporary nor a surge. There was the binding resolutions put forth by the Democrats calling for extricating ourselves from the conflict and the predictable threat of veto by President Bush.

But I couldn't pass up the chance to get in on the developing brouhaha over Fox News co-founder Roger Ailes maligning jocularity of Democratic presidential candidates. While some may have thought his jokes were clever, some were not amused and are acting accordingly.
The Nevada State Democratic Party is pulling out of a controversial presidential debate scheduled for Aug. 14 in Reno and co-hosted by Fox News, according to a letter released late Friday from state party chairman Tom Collins and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev).

The letter said Nevada Democrats had entered into the agreement with Fox, despite strong opposition from Democratic activist groups such as MoveOn.org, as a way of finding "new ways to talk to new people."

But Collins and Reid wrote that comments on Thursday by FOX News Chairman and CEO Roger Ailes, when he jokingly compared Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama, the junior senator from Illinois, to Osama bin Laden, "went too far," and prompted Nevada Democrats to end the partnership.

The Democrats had been under pressure to dump the debate even before Ailes made his comments. Some will no doubt bemoan them as WATB's afraid of fair and balanced debate. But in light of the ample evidence (chronicled here) of what Fox News considers to be "fair and balanced", such claims are most assuredly without merit.