April 25, 2008

Obama to Finally Do Fox News… Why?

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News is out that Barack Obama will finally end his boycott of Fox News and sit down with “Fox News Sunday” for a pre-taped interview on Saturday. “They realized they’ve got a problem after Pennsylvania,” [Fox host Chris] Wallace told the Hollywood Reporter. “In the end, they do it for their own reasons, not ours. But they realized he needs to be able to reach out to working-class, blue-collar Democrats, moderate to conservative, and that’s our target audience.”

Fox News has been slamming Obama non-stop, to such a degree that members of the Fox team have objected on-air and Brave New Films has released a much-watched film on YouTube documenting the phenomenon:

Obama’s boycott of Fox was a good thing for the progressive movement. If he had taken the White House without appearing on the network, it would have proven that Democrats could win without dipping into Fox’s toxic waters, and it would have raised awareness of Fox’s nasty habits. Obama’s campaign is saying he’s going on to “take Fox on.”

The one thing we know for sure: Fox will spend the entire time focusing on the “manufactured issues” of the campaign — flag pins, “bitter”-gate, Weathermen, etc. Obama’s going to get punched. If he punches back, he comes off as confrontational in front of Fox’s blue-collar, moderate and conservatives viewers (who probably aren’t inclined to vote for him anyway, right?). If he doesn’t punch back, he disappoints progressives and the blogosphere, who see a blown opportunity to ostracize a pernicious network.

So tell me. What’s the upside, here?

Update: Brave New Films has more excellence on Obama and Fox News here.

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WE'LL BE BLUNT

It is astonishingly hard keeping a newsroom afloat these days, and we need to raise $253,000 in online donations quickly, by October 7.

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Readers also told us to just give it to you straight when we need to ask for your support, and seeing how matter-of-factly explaining our inner workings, our challenges and finances, can bring more of you in has been a real silver lining. So our online membership lead, Brian, lays it all out for you in his personal, insider account (that literally puts his skin in the game!) of how urgent things are right now.

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