Prometheus 6

I want to point out this post is NOT tagged "Race and Identity," and that's a problem.

Jack and Jill Politics asks Why Lord. Why?

Fox News, Black Caucus team for debates
March 29, 2007

WASHINGTON --Fox News, rebounding from a presidential debate squabble with Democrats, has a new deal with an old debate partner. The cable news network will co-sponsor primary debates for each party's presidential field this fall in association with the Congressional Black Caucus Political Education and Leadership Institute.

The Democratic debate is scheduled for Sept. 23 at Detroit's Fox Theater. The CBC Institute and Fox have not set a date and place for a planned Republican debate. The institute and Fox News teamed up to host two Democratic debates in 2003.

Democrats, under pressure from liberal activists, this month canceled a Nevada debate that Fox was to co-sponsor in August. Democratic critics complained that the network displays a conservative bias in its news broadcasts.

The CBC Institute, a nonprofit group whose directors include members of the Congressional Black Caucus, and Fox News announced their agreement Thursday.

Black Caucus officials made it clear that the size of the Fox News audience was more important than disputes over ideology.

"The CBC Institute is committed to presenting the presidential candidates to the broadest audience possible," Rep. Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., the chairman of the institute, said in a statement. "Collaborating with Fox News provides an opportunity to take this presidential election to millions of households."

Marty Ryan, the network's executive producer of political programming, said the debates that Fox and the CBC Institute sponsored four years ago "were among the most important and interesting of that cycle, and we expect these to be even better."

The sad thing about this is, this institute is supposed to run a 'boot camp' for Black folk to "[instruct] participants in the expertise and techniques required to spit or swallow on demand for conducting a successful campaign for elective office."