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FOX In -- So Edwards Out of Democratic Debate

Posted Mar 8th 2007 3:00PM by TMZ Staff

Democratic presidential candidate John Edwards has decided to pull out of a Democratic primary debate in August, in part because it is being co-hosted by the FOX News Channel. A statement from the Edwards camp also cited "scheduling conflicts" as a reason for Edwards' decision -- which is the political version of "not interested."

David Rhodes, FOX News Channel VP of News, issued a statement calling it "unfortunate that Sen. Edwards has decided to abandon an opportunity to reach the largest mainstream cable news audience in America." Maybe if Fox News didn't regularly use the services of one Ann Coulter, who last week called Edwards a fa**ot, he wouldn't have a problem with them!

The Democratic Party of Nevada's choice of FOX News as a co-host came under heavy scrutiny from such political websites as MoveOn.org Civic Action; the site has an online petition, which they say has over 260,000 signatures asking Dems of Nevada to drop FOX from the debate. It says, in part: "Fox is a mouthpiece for the Republican Party, not a legitimate news channel ... and should be dropped." Eli Pariser, Executive Director of MoveOn.org Civic Action said, "We applaud John Edwards for sending a clear message to voters, the media, and other candidates: Fox is part of the right-wing smear machine and should not be treated like a legitimate news outlet."

Documentarian Robert Greenwald, whose website FoxAttacks.com made a short film about FOX News Channel just for the campaign, tells TMZ, "John Edwards has shown guts, leadership and brains in being the first candidate to say no to the partisan propaganda arm, sometimes called Fox. He is saluted for his vision all over the country by patriots interested in real news."

Edwards hasn't always been anti-FOX News. According to Anne Schroeder at Politico.com, Edwards was on FOX News Channel's "Hannity and Colmes" as recently as January 23, one of the 33 times Edwards has appeared on the network since August 2000.

TMZ contacted reps for both Sen. Hillary Clinton and Sen. Barack Obama to see if they planned to follow suit. Calls were not immediately returned.

Tags: Ann Coulter, AnnCoulter, barack obama, BarackObama, hilary clinton, HilaryClinton, john edwards, JohnEdwards

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Reader Comments

(Page 1 of 10) | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | Most Recent | Next 15 Comments

1. Oh Darm.....I will be so disappointed that Mr. Edwards wont be there. LOL!!

Posted at 5:12PM on Mar 8th 2007 by Shelby

2. WHAT A PUSSY.POTENTIAL PRESIDENT AND HE WONT STAND UP TO THIS ISSUE. HOW WOULD HE (NOT) BE ABLE TO DEAL WITH A REAL CRISIS.

Posted at 5:27PM on Mar 8th 2007 by d

3. This is the same jerk that didnt remove his two official web bloggers after is was discovered they had posted hateful, degrading blogs on Christians and Catholics and in particular about the Virgin Mary. If it had not been for Fox News and Michele Malkin exposing this Edwards was not going to do anything about it. I think the guy's chicken to be asked questions from all sides of the issues a President has to deal with.

That isnt leadership so no loss if he chooses not to participate.

Who do you want to lead the debate, NBC News? Well than thats all left wing democratic, so that wouldnt be correct either based on the claim Fox is all right wing Republican.

This ambulance chasing double talker shouldnt even be on the docket. He aint gonna catch Obama or Hillary so forget this goof.

Posted at 5:16PM on Mar 8th 2007 by Right or Left

4. I swear, Democrats (as a whole) are the whiniest bunch of people...grow up and get over it.

Posted at 5:49PM on Mar 8th 2007 by Megan

5. What difference does it make who sponsors the debates?! And even if Fox is a little heavy on the right, they need it since most of the other media is alot heavy on the left side. Get over it John. It seems that everyone is intitled to their opinions except for anyone who disagrees with the left side of things.

Posted at 5:54PM on Mar 8th 2007 by Deborah Howard

6. My God, talk about hypocritical...he sounds like a spoiled 5 year old that didn't get his way so now he doesn't want to play anymore. GROW UP!!! Is this how a presidential canidate should behave?

Posted at 5:21PM on Mar 8th 2007 by M

7. He's right for not attending anything associated with Faux News. Fox is NOT a news channel, it is a mouthpiece for the GOP. It has no objectivity and routinely reports utter lies about Democrats in the guise as news. Plus it routinely has asshole cross dressers like Ann Coulter on the air to spew hatespeech about anyone the GOP doesn't like. John Edwards would not get a fairshake from Fox. I hope he has blocked Fox from his cable box like I have. It is a waste of bandwidth.

Posted at 5:34PM on Mar 8th 2007 by C-dog

8. Edwards is using the excuse of Fox hosting to avoid tough questions. Such as how can he talk about Jesus being appalled? He didn't say that about the 2 bloggers when he found out about their statements insulting Christianity. Next, I always see on sites like this descriptions of Fox as a Republican mouthpiece, but I watch Fox and Cnn and Foxnews practically hung Ann Coulter for her statements this time and against the 9/11 widows. So if Fox does not agree with a person's viewpoint, they should not have them on their show? That would not be unbiased reporting. Maybe that's why they are the top rated cable news show.

Posted at 5:25PM on Mar 8th 2007 by Cece

9. Why would any Democrat participate if Faux News will be in charge. This is the same network that lied about Obama attending a Islamic Madra., Faux is "unfair and unblanced. "
They're the Al-Jazeerah of America. I say good for John Edwards, for not aligning himself with a shady network like faux.

Posted at 5:42PM on Mar 8th 2007 by scout

10. If Edwards can't take the heat now, heaven help us if he won the election and had to fight the bad guys for the good old USA.
It seems to me he is not that interested...So what is he in the race for? Hmmm.
Just to build up his war chest maybe.
I am sick of ALL of these wanna be candidates by now anyway and we aren't even close to the election. Can you imagine what it will be like in a year?
Bring on 24 or American Idol.

Posted at 5:32PM on Mar 8th 2007 by PJ

11. I personally will be very disappointed not to see & hear him at the debate. John Edwards a good, caring, honest man who can do wonders for our country. God knows how we need it.

Posted at 5:29PM on Mar 8th 2007 by sapphire

12. John Edwards the slimy, ambulance chasing opportunist! He's the reason we have a Health Care crisis!!!

I love Fox News!

Posted at 5:28PM on Mar 8th 2007 by Antonella sucks

13. I wonder how deep his carbon footprint is....probably very deep, just like his other hypocritical liberal cohorts.

Posted at 5:36PM on Mar 8th 2007 by Antonella sucks

14. Go Fox!!!! I would not want anyone that is affiliated with moveon.org to be on Fox.

Posted at 12:07AM on Mar 9th 2007 by gak

15. C-dog, typical left winger. Always looking to bash those who disagree with them instead of focusing on the content of the issue. Thanks for validating C-dog. Guess you dont like both sides of a story, just yours.

Posted at 5:49PM on Mar 8th 2007 by observer

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