The DNC said today that it would not allow Fox News to host a presidential primary debate, according to The Hill.
The organization cited a recent New Yorker hit piece on Fox News as the reason for denying the network a debate.
DNC Chairman Tom Perez released the following statement: “Recent reporting in The New Yorker on the inappropriate relationship between President Trump, his administration and FOX News has led me to conclude that the network is not in a position to host a fair and neutral debate for our candidates. Therefore, FOX News will not serve as a media partner for the 2020 Democratic primary debates.”
Fox News fired back, telling the DNC that its journalists, Bret Baier, Martha MacCallum and Chris Wallace embodied “the ultimate journalistic integrity and professionalism.”
In a statement, Fox News senior vice president and Managing Editor Bill Sammon said, “They’re the best debate team in the business and they offer candidates an important opportunity to make their case to the largest TV news audience in America, which includes many persuadable voters.”
The New Yorker piece, written by liberal author Jane Mayer accuses Fox News and some of its hosts as peddling propaganda for the Trump administration.
Jeffrey Lord of the American Spectator slammed Mayer’s article and reminded his readers that she is “the the author of attack pieces over the years on every conservative from Justice Clarence Thomas and Justice Brett Kavanaugh to the Koch brothers and Robert Mercer…”
“There is not the slightest sense of irony that in fact Mayer herself, not to mention the New Yorker, the magazine for which she writes, are members in good standing of the Liberal State Media,” he writes.
Lord points out the hypocrisy of the Fox News hit piece, writing:
“Mayer writes, aghast, of Trump appointees Ben Carson, John Bolton, K.T. McFarland, Heather Nauert, and Sebastian Gorka as having previously been contributors or commentators on Fox. Ignoring that all of these people had substantial careers outside of Fox News before their Fox stints. And quite decidedly ignoring Liberal State Media stars like Jay Carney of Time (who became White House press secretary), Rick Stengel, also of Time (the managing editor) who served in the Obama State Department, and Strobe Talbott, another Time alum who served in the Clinton State Department. Which is to say, there is a long revolving-door history of media figures serving in an administration.”
