The Hens Attacking the Fox

The Dems think they're on to something by trying to attack the Fox News Channel, especially after Bill Clinton's juvenile performance with Chris Wallace last week. That may not be the smartest move:

The attacks represent a new twist on the Democrats’ complicated dance with the cable news channel. Though Fox News maintains that its reporting is down the middle, Democrats have long complained that the news channel operates like a public relations outpost of the Bush White House. But never before has that anger built into a mad-as-hell-and-not-going-to-take-it-any-more moment, and spilled over in such naked and sustained fashion onto Fox News itself.

“The Republicans are using Fox News to gin up their base, and now — for the first time — the Democrats are doing it, too,” said Steve McMahon, a Democratic strategist with McMahon, Squier & Associates who handled Mr. Dean’s presidential campaign.

Engaging Fox News in such an aggressive manner, however, may not be the smartest strategy. If there’s a base that needs energizing for these midterm elections, it belongs to the Republicans, and a Clinton-led attack may only revivify them. And so far, there is just one clear beneficiary: Fox News. The news channel has highlighted the contretemps on many of its programs, boosting the ratings in the process.

AOL is running one of their online polls tonight in reference to this story, and the results are interesting (if not at all scientific). As I look at it at 10pm PDT, about 135,000 votes have been cast.

Question 1 is "which cable network do you prefer to watch?" So far it's 60% for Fox, 27% CNN, and 13% MSNBC.

Question 2: "What do you think of Fox News?" 60% say its balanced, 37% too conservative, and only 3% too liberal.

Question 3: "What do you think of CNN"? 59% too liberal, 34% balanced, and 6% too conservative.

Question 4: "What do you think of MSNBC"? 55% too liberal, 36% balanced, 9% too conservative. I'm actually surprised that the answer wasn't 95% "what's MSNBC?"

AOL users are not overwhelmingly conservative, but the results look about right to me. Picking on Fox News may make the Dems feel proud of themselves, but it won't help their cause to have the largest cable news operation have to treat them as hostile interviews, or worse yet, refusing to appear on Fox shows. That's cowardice.