Roger Ailes To Media: Pressure To Boycott Debates "Must Be Resisted"

By brian on Mar 08, 2007 11:48 PM

FNC chairman Roger Ailes is apparently taking the effort to "ask the Democratic Party of Nevada to drop Fox" very seriously. During his RTNDF acceptance speech tonight, he addressed the issue head-on:

"Recently pressure groups are forcing candidates to conclude that the best strategy for journalists is divide and conquer, to only appear on those networks and venues that give them favorable coverage.

There's a long tradition of news organizations, national and local, sometimes together, sponsoring presidential and other candidate debates. The organizations and the panelists have been the objects of a lot of advice and even pressure as to how these debates should be conducted and what questions should be asked. This pressure has been successfully resisted, but it's being tried again this year with the added wrinkle that candidates are being asked to boycott debates because certain groups wants to approve the sponsoring organizations.

This pressure must be resisted as it has been in the past. Any candidate for high office of either party who believes he can blacklist any news organization is making a terrible mistake about journalists. And any candidate of either party who cannot answer direct, simple, even tough questions from any journalist runs a real risk of losing the voters.

The public knows if a journalist's question is unfair. They also know if a candidate is impeding freedom of speech and free press. If you are afraid of journalists, how will you face the real dangers in the world?"

Roger Ailes To Media: Pressure To Boycott Debates "Must Be Resisted"

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