Pulitzer prize winning Fox analyst: If you can't handle Fox, you can't handle the Iranians..

[madfloridian]

or North Koreans and so forth and so on.

The source is the Boston Herald, of which I am skeptical. But the comment by Henican is just weird.

Unprecedented political fight between Democrats and Fox News Channel dangerous for both sides

The reaction to former President Clinton’s confrontation last September with Fox Sunday-morning host Chris Wallace taught many Democrats there was political ground to be gained in fighting with Fox.

The risk to this strategy is it could make the candidates look like, well, weenies.

If you can’t handle the people at Fox News Channel, it makes people wonder if you can handle the Iranians, the North Koreans, the Chinese, the Russians and maybe even the Canadians," said Ellis Henican, a Newsday columnist and Fox News contributor.

Henican is usually called upon to take the liberal side of a debate and he’s frequently outnumbered. He finds the experience exhilarating, though. Something about going into enemy territory makes you look and feel strong. Democratic candidates shouldn’t assume that everyone who watches Fox is going to vote against them, he said.

That is from the mouth of a Pulitzer Prize winning journalist and Fox News commentator.



Henican and White

Ellis Henican is a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist for Newsday and a political analyst for Fox News Channel. Lynne White is an Emmy Award-winning veteran television anchor and reporter. Their unique credentials in other media allow them to bring two fresh, hip, entertaining and diverse points-of-view on hot button issues and front page talk with an engaging, youthful "boy-girl" dynamic! "Henican & White" is an entertaining blend of water cooler talk and hot topics of the day.

Also from the Herald article is this interesting comment by Joe Trippi, one I disagree with.

A feud against Fox might not be the best long-term plan, either. People there have been known to hold a grudge.

The assumption is that a candidate’s antipathy toward Fox won’t last beyond a primary campaign. Even now, the Democrats aren’t ignoring Fox - they will answer reporters’ questions and consent to the occasional interview.

Candidates aren’t objecting to Fox so much as they were taking a stand against organizations like the Nevada Democratic Party and the CBC Institute appearing to endorse the network, said Joe Trippi, a Democratic consultant who ran Howard Dean’s 2004 campaign

Actually, Joe, many were taking a stance against Fox. Stop muddying the waters.

[NormanYorkstein]

1. Fine - I don't want Iran sponsoring the Democratic debate!

Fair enough?

[madfloridian]

2. That's funny.

:D

[JDPriestly]

3. This guy thinks he is "handling" Fox. Sounds like Fox is handling him.

[Erika]

4. The Boston Herald is Right wing, big time

Faux Noise is hardly a credible news source. I don't think one Democrat should appear on Faux Noise. It is a right wing tabloid.

[jsamuel]

5. Funny. Not talking with Iran is a good strategy, but not talking with Fox is a terrible one?

:banghead:

[Jim Sagle]

6. They DID handle Fox. They gave it a beating.

[EFerrari]

7. Let's see. 8 years of Clinton and domestic tranquility.

I think he handled the "Iranians" very well.

Kiss my remote, Ellis.

[mile18blister]

8. We are against wars of choice.

Legitimizing Faux News is not in our best interest.

[Ecumenist]

9. Huh? I don't get the connection between the two...

[Leopolds Ghost]

10. They are both evil

Apparently. I heard it on TV.

They both torture people and lie to their captive audience?

[madfloridian]

11. Actually it is a weird thing for him to say...

it is like baiting the Democrats to go on Fox. Like calling them cowardly, like saying they are not good on foreign policy if they don't go on Fox.

For a Pulitzer prize winner to say something so silly is just unreal.

I would hope he is kidding, but I am afraid he is not. It is the kind of rhetoric the right likes...tough guy stuff.

He does not sound even like a token liberal to me.

[madfloridian]

12. Could he have been joking?

Or sarcastic? The AP did not present it that way. Read this from Newshounds...he sounds different.

http://www.newshounds.us/2006/03/30/democrats_fight_back_on_hannity_colmes.php

"Hannity, proving again that only the left engage in angry, shrill attacks said, “We’re gonna air Ted Turner’s comments about the president. Then you have Richard Dreyfus, who’s an idiot... At what point does this not design (sic) to chip away at the credibility of the president who’s leading troops in harm’s way. What do our enemies think?”

Henican said, “You’re making way too much of it… When you become a big boy and run for president of the United States, people say stuff about you… It doesn’t have REMOTELY the impact that you’re making out of it… Why are you so rattled by this?”

Hannity seemed a bit flustered. His customary bully-boy tone disappeared from his voice. “I’m saying the level now is so destructive and hurtful and I believe it’s undermining our troops and putting them in harm’s way.”

Henican kept it up. “Democracy does not go on vacation when we go to war… You’re confusing open and honest and vigorous debate by throwing this anti-patriotic stone. It’s inappropriate. It’s not democratic.” (YAY, ELLIS!!!)"

So when he said this from the OP was he being sarcastic? I have never seen him, I don't watch Fox, so I don't know.

"If you can’t handle the people at Fox News Channel, it makes people wonder if you can handle the Iranians, the North Koreans, the Chinese, the Russians and maybe even the Canadians," said Ellis Henican, a Newsday columnist and Fox News contributor."

They sound like two different people.

[kurth]

13. They hate to be ignored. Just keep ignoring them.