NV Dems Pull Fox Debate!

Wow, this comes rather unexpected. But sometimes these things always happen on a Friday afternoon in the hope it'll be buried with the weekend papers and not resurface on Monday. However, I just cannot believe that will happen with this story:

"Nevada Dems Nix Fox Debate" writes The Politico. They had no comment yet from either the State Party or Fox News. One can assume though that after all the protests, the distancing done by Harry Reid, and Edwards pulling out this might have sealed the deal:

FOX News Chairman and CEO Roger Ailes gave the progressive activists more ammunition on Thursday when he jokingly compared Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama, the junior senator from Illinois, to Osama bin Laden.

This might be hurtful to the State Party in the short run. However with Tom Collins leaving at the end of the month and Jill Derby most likely to take over, the party will get over this.

What do I believe, though, is that Fox News will be deeply hurt by this. "Fair and Balanced" is definitely done with.

UPDATE:

From Kos:

So it's official, though I'm still waiting for an official statement from the Nevada Democratic Party and maybe even Harry Reid.

The Big Winner: the Progressive movement, which came together at all levels -- netroots, grassroots, and even some institutional players.

The other Big Winner: John Edwards, whose early leadership dropping out of the debate spurred intense media coverage (hence pressure) and fueled its demise.

Snatched victory from the jaws of defeat: Richardson, who announced he was pulling out just an hour or so before the official demise of the debate. He would've been left isolated, the only candidate to agree to a now-dead debate. Spared by the hair on his chinny chin chin.

Mild loser: The other campaigns, especially Obama, who could've shown some leadership and hit back at the network that has been tormenting them with non-stop smear attacks. Instead, they played it safe.

The Big Loser: Fox News, which will now face a whole new round of stories discussing their "conservative bias" and propaganda function. For a network that wanted this debate to obscure their partisan purpose, this is the worst of all worlds.

Next up: Will the Congressional Black Caucus team up with Fox for its own debate?

UPDATE 2:

Apparently Fox News is such a good news organization that it doesn't respond to journalists, like The Politico's Ryan Grim, but is very quick to give something to the right wing Drudge Report (and, yes, I hate to quote him):

“We have not received official word from the Nevada State Democratic Party disclosing a change in debate plans. Rumors are being circulated and if true, news organizations will want to think twice before getting involved in the Nevada Democratic Caucus which appears to be controlled by radical fringe out-of-state interest groups, not the Nevada Democratic Party. In the past, Moveon.org has said they ‘own’ the Democratic party—while most Democrats don’t agree with that, we’re waiting to see if that’s the case in Nevada.” -- David Rhodes, Vice President, Fox News...

That Fox News is lashing out like this and is doing so this quickly just proves how much this hurts them.