The Democratic National Committee today decided to exclude the conservative news network Fox News from the broadcast of the debates among the party’s candidates during the campaign for the primaries, after a report detailing the channel’s links with US president Donald Trump.
“The network is not in a position to host a clean and neutral debate for our candidates,” said the head of the Committee, Tom Perez, who quoted a report by the magazine “New Yorker” as a pretext that led to this decision.
The article, ironically titled “The practices of ‘Fox White House News,’ suggests that the chain has become a vehicle of” propaganda “for Trump.
Before that text, Perez concluded that Fox News “will not serve as a partner to broadcast the debates of the Democratic primary elections of 2020.”
Even so, “I think the key road to victory is to expand our electorate and reach all the voters,” explained Perez, “which is why one of my priorities has been talking to all the media, including Fox News.”
Several channels have presented their proposals to televise the debates, which will begin in June, among the twelve candidates of the Democratic Party that have been nominated so far.
The emissions of these meetings are very profitable for the media, for example the first debate among candidates of the Republican Party in 2015 recorded audiences of more than 24 million viewers.
Fox News vice president Bill Sammon responded in a statement that he “expects the Democratic Committee to reconsider its decision” to ban journalists from this channel, “embodying journalistic integrity and professionalism,” moderating a Democratic presidential debate.
The debate “offers candidates an important opportunity to present their proposals to the largest television audience in the US, which includes many persuasive voters,” he argued.
Trump’s connections with Fox News have been documented several times, in addition to the president had in the past his own space in the channel’s morning programming before reaching the Presidency and he himself has promoted several programs and contents of Fox News in his Twiter account.
