Reno, Nev.
The Democratic Party last week canceled a candidates’ debate in Reno scheduled to air on Fox News, citing a joke by Fox chairman Roger Ailes that conflated presidential hopeful Barack Obama’s name with Osama bin Laden’s. Saying Ailes’ remark “went too far,” Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and Nevada Democrats pulled the plug on the planned event. But liberal bloggers immediately claimed credit for the reversal. They had campaigned vigorously for Democrats to cancel the debate, arguing that by agreeing to it, Democrats were “validating Fox News as a legitimate news source,” in the words of liberal blogger Matt Stoller. Fox News vice president David Rhodes said Nevada Democrats were being pushed around by “radical, fringe, out-of-state interest groups.”
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