Calling the Fox News debate a "sordid event," Time magazine's Joe Klein offered Barack Obama the journalistic version of the cinematic slow clap with an April 9 post to Time's "Swampland" blog:
First, congratulations to Barack Obama for dropping out of the Congressional Black Caucus Institute-Fox News debate. With John Edwards already out, that means this sordid event is over...Back in 2004, I remember raising an eyebrow or two when it was announced that Fox would sponsor a debate in partnership with the CBC, of all groups. Roger Ailes' strategy seemed classic: For the dimwitted, Fox would seem high-minded and civil rights oriented...for everyone else, Fox would provide a high-profile podium for Democrats to pander to one of the party's most myopic interest groups.
That it might have been a wise business decision by Ailes and other Fox executives to try to increase viewership by Democrats and African-American news consumers doesn't occur to Klein, apparently.
Nor does Klein address the hypothetical of say John McCain boycotting a CNN debate out of outrage over an anti-war bias in general and say Michael Ware's snark about McCain in particular.
Moving on to address Don Imus and his "nappy-headed hos" comment about the Rutgers University women's basketball team, Klein found the need to take a swipe at a conservative fixture on another network, CNN Headline News:
And while we're talking about who should and should not be on the air, I've got lots more time for Imus than, say, Glenn Beck--who Time Warner, my corporate parent, puts on the air for the edification of civilization. Imus has proven over the years that he can and will read books. Not so sure about Beck.
