Howard Dean On Fox News Sunday: Your Coverage Is "Shockingly Biased" (VIDEO)

During an appearance on Fox News Sunday this morning, Democratic Party chairman Howard Dean said that Fox's news coverage has at times been "shockingly biased, and I think that's wrong and I just say so right up front." Dean also said he agreed with the netroots campaign to boycott the Democratic debates on the network.

Host Chris Wallace tried to get Dean to bash MoveOn and Daily Kos, saying they were "using words about you guys showing up here as weak, idiotic, stupid. How do you respond to the left wing?" But Dean avoided taking the bait:

DEAN: We stayed off Fox for a long time because your news department is, in fact, biased. But, Chris, you haven't been. You've always been tough, but I always thought fair and I still think that's true. And we need to communicate with people who are going to vote in the Democratic Party. Hundreds of thousands of Republicans have turned their back on their own party to vote in the Democratic primaries in the last six months. We owe it to our -- to all the American people to reach out to those folks. This is not about Fox News. That's not why I'm here today. I'm out because I want to talk to your viewers directly about why this election is important and what we can offer the American people.

Watch it:

Dean also said on Fox that Republicans are using "hate and divisiveness" to win elections.

Dean argued that the use of Sen. Barack Obama's (D-Ill.) former pastor Jeremiah Wright in GOP ads in local races is "race baiting."

"When you start bringing up things that have nothing to do with the candidate and nothing to do with the issues, that's race baiting," Dean said on Fox News Sunday in response to a question whether the Wright issue and his ties to Obama hurt Democrats down ticket.

"There's a lot of difference between the Republicans and the Democrats on issues, but the biggest issue of all is we don't use this kind of stuff. We never have used this kind of stuff, and we're not going to start now," said the DNC chairman. "America is more important than the Republican Party, and that's the lesson that the voters are about to teach the Republicans."

Transcript:

WALLACE: The left wing of your party is in a snit over all these Democrats appearing on Fox. In fact, the head of MoveOn.org had this to say about Democrats on Fox. "It legitimizes a right wing network that is going to use that credibility to smear them in the general election." He and the head of the Daily Kos are using words about you guys showing up here as weak, idiotic, stupid. How do you respond to the left wing?

DEAN: What I'd say is this: we stayed off Fox for a long time because your news department is, in fact, biased. But, Chris, you haven't been. You've always been tough, but I always thought fair and I still think that's true. And we need to communicate with people who are going to vote in the Democratic Party. Hundreds of thousands of Republicans have turned their back on their own party to vote in the Democratic primaries in the last six months. We owe it to our -- to all the American people to reach out to those folks. This is not about Fox News. That's not why I'm here today. I'm out because I want to talk to your viewers directly about why this election is important and what we can offer the American people.

WALLACE: Let me ask you, and obviously it's always about the millions of people who watch these shows. Looking back, do you think it was a mistake for the Democratic Party to boycott Fox debates and all the other programs during the last year and thereby boycott getting your message out to the millions of people who watch?

DEAN: No, I think it was the right thing to do, because there are some things in the news department that have really been shockingly biased and I think that's wrong and I just say so right up front. It is important also for us -- we shouldn't punish the viewers of Fox by staying away. Now those viewers have had an opportunity to look at the debates on other channels, now they're going to have an opportunity viewing on this channel and I think that's fair.

Comments

[ByersL]

Well Howard needs to also go on MSNBC and tell them the same thing. They have run that knuckle brained Dan Abrahms report about Obama and Wright AGAIN tonight after three or more times this weekend. It's really sensationalist pandering to Hillo!! Dr Dean--please get on there and set them straight too!!

[Max01]

Everytime Dan Abrams starts off his show with Rev Wright or some other b.s. story, then you know that he has nothing else to report - so you just turn him off. After watching Keith Olbermann and excellent guest, Richard Lewis (Pure joy), it's a real let-down watching Faux News wanna-be Abrams.

[mmm611]

Fox news helped us get into the war in Iraq. Don't forget!

[flacon]

Much noise here. Fox is mass media. No worse than any other. Better than most.

Give the people what they want!!

[OutsourcedAgain]

Hey flacon, I want some of whatever your smoking so I too can become brain dead.

Fox is better than most... really? Have you watched any others?

[steve12]

Obviously you don't want much Fox News. It is the most biased news in America, bar none. It makes Radio Pacifica seem objective.

Although MSNBC's Olbermann can be just as biased as O'Reilly, at least MSNBC has hosts on multiple sides of the political spectrum. Fox does not, unless you consider right and extreme right representative of the electorate. There are NO liberals that host programs on Fox. Shows like Hannity and Colmes are as far right as you can get without delving into Fascism. Colmes I guess could be considered a co-host, but it's Hannity that sets the agenda and decides what guests are on his show.

As much as I dislike Fox, many people watch them and they need to hear another point of view, which Chris Wallace presented last week with Obama and this week with Dean.

The one show that was "fair and balanced" was News Watch, which was decimated when Eric Burns was fired.

As much as I consider Fox a mouthpiece of the RNC, I do think democrats should appear on Fox and I'm glad that democrats have decided to not leave Fox to the RNC completely.

[blindjester]

"Give the people what they want!!"

Pander to bigots?

That's a money decision. But that makes them entertainment; don't pretend they're a news outlet.

Fox is propoganda in a pure form. They have a political agenda that pretends to be populist and family-oriented, but they are there to enable the enablers, to build a republican majority that will give the keys of the country over to the corporations.

There are two kinds of people who support Fox news: millionaires benefitting from Bush's corporatis­m----which makes them cynical, selfish bastards-----and regular people, who are just idiots.

[ClevelandTom]

While there are many instances one could point to to demonstrate Fox News bias, this is a favorite that I saw back in April 2003 during the invasion..­.

Fox stopped their normal programming to breathlessly announce that elements of the 101st division had found a depot of chemical weapons. Their embedded reporter was showing shots of a trench with 3-4 55-gallon drums in a compund they said belonged the Iraqi argriculture ministry. They said that sensor had given positive indications of a nerve agent from the drums. While the reporter and anchor are talking on and on about Saddam's WMD's and such, the cameraman moves in for a close-up of the barrels. It has labels in Arabic on one side with a skull and crossed bones. The camera moves to the other side and there is a label in English saying "Insecticide" as clear as day.

The reporter and the anchor guy kept on talking for another 10 minutes about how this could be the first WMD find of what would probably be many more. They didn't even mention the Insecticide label. (For those not familiar, insecticide is really just a much weaker version of the Sarin nerve agent and, so, will trigger a sensor.)

The next day the military said is wasn't a WMD find but did Fox ever once acknowledge their mistake? No.

[THEhillbilly]

It's clear that you don't know what "bias" means. What bias, for or against what, did you think that incident demonstrated?

One thing's for sure...if the Hussein government had the word "insecticide" stenciled on those barrels, they couldn't possibly have contained something else. (Clue: sarcasm. Sorry.) Anyway, all the networks and their on-the-scene reporters did the same. They all believed the WMD thing at the time.

[rshrink]

flakeon, get a clue. Faux news wouldn't have been allowed some years ago. No one is worse than them although AM radio is right there with them in terms of pushing ignorance.

[THEhillbilly]

Here's something that will surprise you: "Faux" does not rhyme with, for example, "mocks." Even if it did, you need to try to overcome your lameness reflex. It's hilarious to see one of your kind (the booboisie) tell someone else to get a clue.

[Wingmaker]

.

Faux News is awful .... True story Saturday they ran a story it was a half job about McCains pastor speaking of hate.. so I post a comment on there blog that read...So fox news is reporting about McCains pastor where is the truth about it though? fair and balanced huh?. Do you know they pulled it of there blog.

[EuroPreacher]

Some CNN reporters are biased as well.Take for instance, pro-GOP John King increasingly pleading for Hillary Clinton case as a more electable candidate(Coming from a McCain endorser!) while she has the math stack against her...Town­send will join another pro-Bush Anderson Cooper living us with only Jack Cafferty..­.Lou Dobbs is too right-wing and Wolf Blitzer is a good journalist even if he was a big lobbyist: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7xatMfqa_C0
Wolf is a great guy!

[THEhillbilly]

Sounds like they don't want to be associated with illiteracy.

[feculentlibs]

Judging by your post here,they probably pulled it because it was illegible.

Illiterate posts should be scrubbed. You should not be able to inflict this on others.

[sierrarisings1]

Dean you are a weak man. The party is divided part because you

[bluesnot]

Oh, Hillary, don't be such a whiner!

[GeorgeKaplan]

She's not whining. She' fighting.

[sink]

Completely agree. This is one more example of the Democrats continuing to jack themselves up by having election "experts" who have failed at getting elected (or their candidates elected) in charge of far too much of the show.

[peacebro]

Excuse me, the party is divided in the greatest measure because Hilary has no integrity or scruples when it comes to campaigning. She uses lies, innuendo and right wing slash and burn tactics to force her will at the detriment of the party and the good of the country at large. This is why so many Democrats and Superdelegates have had enough of her and are slowly moving to the Obama's camp.

Howard Dean has far more class than to stoop so low as Hilary and her selfish power hungry agenda..

[GeorgeKaplan]

This is a delusional comment. The party is divided because of Super Delegates who must vote "their conscious.­" We have a fundamentally undemocratic primary system that seems to be a disaster in a CLOSE election. Trying to strong arm Hillary out of the race is unseemly at best and very undemocratic at it's worst. Let's fix this after this election..­. this SD component to the DNC primary system is appalling. If voters picked the candidates we would be better off. Trying to SMEAR Hillary is not the answer...

[PAposter]

"sierrarisings1" explain how Senator Dean is responsible for the Democratic divide.

[disgusted48]

Dean is trying to let the electorate determine the candidate. It's called democracy. It's different than the republican method where one candidate is annointed and the rank and file fall in line. I cannot believe how quickly the once despised McCain has been embraced by the right. No hysterics, no high profile objections or defections. They behave so well, just like little sheep.

[rh654]

I like this tactic that the Democrats have taken with Foxnews.

1) Deny Foxnews strategic shows such as debates.
2) The Democrats should decide when and on which shows to appear - if Foxnews doesn't want to bend to the Democrats will - then just don't show up on Foxnews
3) Once on Foxnews the Democrats should be forceful and conduct a good interview as long as Foxnews is conducting a decent interview.
4) However, if Foxnews wants to go aggressive in the interview - the person being interviewed should be ready with some talking points and hit back immediately like Bill Clinton did and don't let them recover - force the issue you want and demand a response.
5) This means that the Democrats should stick together and only put people on Foxnews who are able to dish it out if they have to and who can hold their own in a verbal contest.

[castlerider]

Dems have been needing to do this for the last 7 years, but many (the ones Fox has chosen to have on) haven't had the cojones to do so.

[lthuedk 1]

Fox Propaganda needs to buy O'Reilly a smaller, tighter straight jacket and dose him with 200 mg of Benzedrine. We want a spectacle above and beyond his already vulgar displays. This would get very high ratings points.

Rupert: are you listening?

http://www.light-to-dark.com/coulter_limbaugh_oreilly.html

[THEhillbilly]

"Rupert" probably ignores idiots. No, he isn't listening to your hebephrenic remarks.

[Cougarkj]

Dean says the Democratic Party doesn't do race baiting, but HRC's campaign certainly has indulged in more than a little...o­ne more reason not to let her hijack the nomination.

[RickTheScribe]

Well, Hillary is only a Democrat when she thinks it's politically advantageous to be one.

[bluesnot]

She's sort of a non-Democrat when it comes to the war.

[S1m0n]

While Hillary Clinton remains in the race, I'm astonished that Dean could claim that there are things the democtratic party is too honorable to do with a straight face.

[transendentilist]

Hillary has every right to stay in the race. Even Obama says so. You Obamians are a trip. You are fervently pro Obama, yet you seem to be ignorant as to what he stands for. Amazing. And Obamians get upset when they are referred to as, "cultist."

[SethBullock]

Having a "right" to do something doesn't mean you should do it. She has EVERY right to stay in, and we have a right to be angry at her for endangering our chances of winning in the fall.

[kevx]

The fact is that Howard Dean should actually be president right now. If Iowa didn't pick Kerry, Dean would have won the Democratic nomination and then the white house. He would have destroyed Bush in the debates. It's too bad. I don't understand people vilifying him. He's clearly a smart well spoken guy. I wish he was our president.

[haleywins]

Dean did extraordinarily well this a.m. Wallace did not get ahead of Dean for a second, no matter how snippy Wallace was.

[foreffectivegovernment]

Senator Barack Obama stated on "Meet the Press" that he would abide their decision if the superdelegates overturned his nomination for the good of the Democratic Party.
In his own words from the transcript.

MR. RUSSERT: If the superdelegates got together, the undecided superdelegates and said, "You know, Senator Obama, we think that Hillary Clinton is a stronger candidate against John McCain. Here are the latest polls in the swing states, the overall national polls. You've run a wonderful race, but we're going to go with Senator Clinton as our nominee," what would you do?
SEN. OBAMA: I don't think that's going to happen. I--let, let me say at the outset, I want a Democrat to win in November, so even if Senator Clinton were the nominee instead of me, I would still be campaigning for Democrats because we haven't talked much about John McCain today, and the one thing I'm clear about is he wanted--wants to continue George Bush's foreign policy, he wants to continue George Bush's economic policies.
MR. RUSSERT: But do the superdelegates have the right to override, in effect, the decision of the elected delegates?
SEN. OBAMA: I, I think the superdelegates, by rule, can make their own decision.
MR. RUSSERT: And if the superdelegates decide otherwise, you will abide by it.
SEN. OBAMA: Well, you know, as, as I said, I'm committed to making sure Democrats win in November.

[HatingTheGame]

That's the difference between Democracts who hold true to their values and principles and HillBilly. Perhaps that's why Democrats have lost, because they refused to sink to the treachery and treason that Republicans have so been willing to do.

Unfortunately I think Republicans in the post-Reagan (counter) revolution, actually starting with the Southern Strategy by Nixon, has shown they are willing to sacrifice principles and their values (and as Iraq and 911 has shown, their country) to win at any cost.

HillBilly are willing to do that. Gore wasn't, Kerry wasn't, and I'm afraid that Obama isn't either.

This country has been hijacked by opportunistic, neocon, proto-fascists supported by the most hieneous and militaristic elements of our society. That is what we have, and those are the kinds of people we end up choosing as our leaders -- because, frankly, America has lost her way.

[SophieL]

"SEN. OBAMA: I, I think the superdelegates, by rule, can make their own decision."
You THINK? Give me a break! You KNOW. You're a constitutional lawyer and you know it. You've known it all along. This is right up there with "as far as I know."

Notice he did not say he would work hard to get Hillary elected. Just generic Democrats. We won't see Obama campaigning for Hillary. But hey, I will certainly appreciate the down-ticket work. I'll take it if that's the best he can muster up.

[disgusted48]

Once again, Obama is the voice of reason. Intelligent, thoughtful responses, rather than slash and burn, and knee jerk reactions.

[Satch]

Chris Wallace works for Fox doesn't he? It's bullshit when Fox says they are fair and balanced.

[donaldw6]

Howard Dean has created a little bit of a stir by stating the truth about FOX, and that will get some play in the news media. That's a very good thing. I'm very skeptical that appearances on FOX have any benefits that outweigh the impact of seeming to legitimize a destructive propaganda machine, but Dean may be the first one to actually provide that benefit.

There is unfair bias everywhere in the mass media, and the vast majority of it is tilted toward the establishment views, meaning it is by definition conservative. FOX has taken that bias to a disturbing level, and its effect can be seen in many of the extreme and hateful posts I've read here. We're not very well served when we emphasize our divisions, whether it comes from Rev. Wright or from Sean Hannity. We need honesty, we need real knowledge, and we need to start having a little compassion. I don't see much of that on any network, least of all on FOX.

[Snerdgronk]

Don: "... Howard Dean has created a little bit of a stir by stating the truth about FOX, and that will get some play in the news media.

SG: Hen amongst the Foxes as it were ...

Don: "... I'm very skeptical that appearances on FOX have any benefits that outweigh the impact of seeming to legitimize a destructive propaganda machine,

SG: Well, 'spin is the thing' ... Show up and it legitimizes Fox, don't show up and it legitimizes the Liberal Media

Don: "... We're not very well served when we emphasize our divisions, whether it comes from Rev. Wright or from Sean Hannity. ."

SG: Nicely put


Snerd

[soundfury]

Let's not waste words on trash news like this. The only people who belong on Fox are all the ones who are there already, the radical right, and a traitor to the Democratic party named Hillary R. Clinton.

[CivilDisobedient]

Traitor to the democratic party?? Care to give some examples??? Or are you just another obamian making false accusations??? Without a shred of proof.

It's not Hillary who blames a fellow dem for the Iraq war. It's not Hillary that condems her fellow dems for casting a vote that she was not required to cast. It's not hillary that said..."Th­e GOP was the party of ideas, when the dems were not. And it is not Hillary who is pitting black dems against white dems and vice versa.

[nexus1961]

Proof #1:
Voted for the war.
Proof #2:
Voted for the Patriot Act.
Proof #3:
Voted -- REPEATEDLY-- for TelCom Immunity.
Proof #4:
Along with Nancy Pelosi, ruled out EVEN ATTEMPTING to impeach Bush.
If those alone don't constitute treason to Democratic Ideals, then I no longer
want to be a Democrat!!!!

[kdubbg]

She has repeatedly allied with McCain in policy (gas tax holiday?) she has stated that she and McCain are experienced and Obama is not. (whether you think he is or not to give McCain that credit is a disservice to the Dems.) she has repeatedly used smear tactics that could undermine the Democratic candidate and give fuel to the GOP by attacking Obama on the grounds that the GOP smear machine "is going to bring it up in the general" while Obama has said he'd support her if she were the nominee. She hasn't said boo.

[Snerdgronk]

Civil: "... It's not Hillary who blames a fellow dem for the Iraq war. It's not Hillary that condems her fellow dems for casting a vote that she was not required to cast. ."

SG: True, but when Hilla(R)y got a redo, during "W" last State of the Union where he stated. 'the surge is working', Hilla(R)y stood up an applauded. Obama did not. This occurence 'renders' your point moot.

Snerd

[cincigal]

So what about Egobama?He was on Fox before Clinton was.Are you calling him a traitor too.Or is this another double standard.I­ts okay for Obama,but not for Clinton.Ty­pical Obamanut voo voo logic.