Spring Break
CBC wants candidates to spar on national broadcast
Hazel Trice Edney/NNPA Editor-in-Chief
Issue date: 7/29/07 Section: Politics
"Our goal, was, number one, to get broadcast partners who would enable us to reach the greatest number of households. And CNN and FOX news, whether they are liberal or conservative are the largest cable news networks in the world," she said in an NNPA interview in early spring. FOX News boasts 86 million viewers while CNN boasts 105 million.
Cummings, an announced Obama supporter, says the Institute is moving ahead with plans for the debate despite steady criticism from ColorofChange.org, an online lobbying group aimed at promoting and resolving issues affecting black Americans.
The group's executive director James Rucker, accuses the CBC of "legitimizing a network that calls black churches a cult, implies that Barack Obama is a terrorist, and uses the solemn occasion of Coretta Scott King's funeral to call black leaders 'racist.'"
The Rev. Jesse Jackson of Rainbow/PUSH Coalition has also opposed the debate on FOX, calling it the "Fox guarding the henhouse."
Thousands of phone calls, letters and e-mails have inundated the Institute's Capitol Hill offices. But, Cummings remains adamant. "Let me be real clear. FOX was willing, when nobody else was willing to take our debate and to take it beyond a 1500-room auditorium. It's nice to have a debate, but if you're going to limit it to 1,500 people as opposed to millions, that's a no-brainer for me," he said.
Fox News Chairman Roger Ailes has issued a statement expressing pride in their agreement with the CBC.
Cummings noted that all of the major stations have a ways to go in their racial inclusion and fairness. But, as for FOX, "Again, they were the ones who stepped up to the plate. The key is to get - and we did - African Americans asking key questions. That's what we're looking for."
Cummings, an announced Obama supporter, says the Institute is moving ahead with plans for the debate despite steady criticism from ColorofChange.org, an online lobbying group aimed at promoting and resolving issues affecting black Americans.
The group's executive director James Rucker, accuses the CBC of "legitimizing a network that calls black churches a cult, implies that Barack Obama is a terrorist, and uses the solemn occasion of Coretta Scott King's funeral to call black leaders 'racist.'"
The Rev. Jesse Jackson of Rainbow/PUSH Coalition has also opposed the debate on FOX, calling it the "Fox guarding the henhouse."
Thousands of phone calls, letters and e-mails have inundated the Institute's Capitol Hill offices. But, Cummings remains adamant. "Let me be real clear. FOX was willing, when nobody else was willing to take our debate and to take it beyond a 1500-room auditorium. It's nice to have a debate, but if you're going to limit it to 1,500 people as opposed to millions, that's a no-brainer for me," he said.
Fox News Chairman Roger Ailes has issued a statement expressing pride in their agreement with the CBC.
Cummings noted that all of the major stations have a ways to go in their racial inclusion and fairness. But, as for FOX, "Again, they were the ones who stepped up to the plate. The key is to get - and we did - African Americans asking key questions. That's what we're looking for."
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