Well, your email paid off! As much, perhaps, as we could hope given that we’re dealing with the Republican behemoth that is the Fox “News” Channel. So all in all, a job well done, guys! It pays to make noise and fight for your Democracy.
As originally reported here, the Hannity & Colmes show had announced on Friday that tonight’s guests would be:
ON THE RIGHT: Karl Rove, Dick Morris, William Weld
ON THE LEFT: Bill Richardson
By the time tonight’s show aired, Morris and Weld on the Right were dumped, and Terry McAuliffe added on the Left. Unfortunately, Jeb Bush (obviously on the Right) was added as well. Yet, on it’s face, it appeared to be more “Fair and Balanced” as such:
ON THE RIGHT: Karl Rove, Jeb Bush
ON THE LEFT: Bill Richardson, Terry McAuliffe
Well, that looks more “Fair & Balanced”, doesn’t it? But here was the actual show breakdown (Right leaning segments bold)
SEGMENT 1: Jeb Bush
SEGMENT 2: Jeb Bush
SEGMENT 3: Bill Richardson
SEGMENT 4: Karl Rove
(Seg 4 Rove interview by Hannity only! Colmes not allowed!)
SEGMENT 5: Terry McAuliffe
Final tally was 3 segments with the Right (one that Hannity had all to himself) and only 2 segments with the Left.
As I’ve mentioned in the past, my source inside H&C tells me that they have a very difficult time getting the DNC and Kerry campaign to cooperate and give them guests for the show. The theory — a mostly plausible one — is that Fox is so far to the Right, the Dems feel they won’t get a fair shake when they go on.
I share my sources belief, however, that it’s foolish for the Dems to simply write off Fox “News” in the bargain.
Yes, of course they won’t get a fair shake on Fox, but it’s better to show up and represent as best they can than to allow Fox to overweight with Republicans, or worse, stick someone like Pat Cadell on there and call him a “Democratic Consultant” when he hasn’t worked or supported any Democrats since, I believe, Jimmy Carter! Or have Susan Estrich on there — who worked for Arnold Schwarzenegger! — and call her a “Democratic Consultant”.
Like it or not, more Americans watch Fox these days for political news than anybody else — and it’s not all hard right wingnuts. There are a lot of reasonable, normal, Left-leaning Americans that watch FNC as well! I’m certainly one of them! Frankly because it’s not quite as dull as it’s competition (who are only slightly less slanted to the Right these days). So it’s imperative that Dems show up and at least fight on that turf to try anyway to partially balance Fox’s constant imbalance.
If I hear from my source any plausible explanation as to why H&C still managed to skew things to the Right tonight, on Election Eve of all nights — even though they had a seemingly even number of Democrats to interview — I’ll update this item.
Other than that, I’m without ammunition to defend it. So instead, I’ll just leave you with this exchange from the end of the segment tonight with McAuliffe:
HANNITY: Well, we let you on…that’s about as fair and balanced as we can get.
I guess it is.
Good work. Really.
Was watching Joe Scarborough tonight wrap his lips around Bush’s cock. He poo pooed the youth vote saying they "never" get out the vote. He used his own campaigns in FL (a redneck beach town dominated by military bases where he ran unnopposed in 3 elections) and Clinton’s re-election in ’96 and Dean’s loss in Iowa (which was a CAUCUS where the Deniacs couldn’t vote) He didn’t have much to say about Clinton in 92 though.
I swear there must be freaky super-secret pseudo-mystical Republican induction/hazing rituals for Right Wing media hosts.
I find the youth vote interesting, since I’m part of it.
Anyways, the part with Hannity / Rove 1-on-1…I remember a while back Alan talking about how they do that for each of them from time to time to make it for an easier conversation without debate. I don’t remember the exact context, but its something both Alan and Sean used as a marketing point to make their show different or something…
There is much more to that "1 on 1" segment, and perhaps I can go into details about it sometime. But without going into the details, the night before the election is no time for such a 1 on 1. At least not without a balanced 1 on 1 from Alan.
And *certainly* not while you’re offering Jeb Bush TWO segments in a row at the top of the show to boot! The first 20 (most watched!) minutes was all Jeb, all the time!