With Hillary Clinton and Terry McAuliffe’s embarrassing endorsement of FOX’s coverage (apparently making up for FOX’s previous 14 years of horribly unfair, dishonest coverage) and the recent high-profile “get” of Barack Obama on FOX News Sunday, the feeling in the media world is that FNS host Chris Wallace (and FOX) have been legitimized and are on a roll — which is exactly what many on the left (including myself) predicted would happen if prominent Democrats appeared there. And with Wallace’s journalistic pedigree and willingness (on one lonely occasion) to call out his FOX colleagues for Dem-sliming that was even too outrageous for him, Wallace is being portrayed as FOX’s “serious,” respectable father figure — in contrast to hot-headed, homophobic Uncle O’Reilly and racist prettyboy meathead Uncle Hannity.

In a recent interview with the Hollywood Reporter, Wallace talked about his Obama Watch and furthered several myths about FOX which, unfortunately, are increasingly being regarded as “conventional wisdom”:

THR: How effective was "Obama Watch?"

Wallace: There were two factors in his decision to come on. One was the "Obama Watch." It gave us a way to dramatize the fact that he was ducking us. Right after we started it, I called one of the people in the Obama campaign who had been putting me off for months. I said, "What did you think of it?" His response was that it was obnoxious.

But now I say it was obnoxious and effective. More important was his defeat in Pennslylvania and his lopsided defeat among white, working class voters.

First, by saying that Obama was “ducking” FOX implies that Obama has some sort of obligation or responsibility to go on FOX. He doesn’t. Obama isn’t doing interviews with Rush Limbaugh, Michael Weiner Savage, the KKK, or Neo-Nazis because they’ve all vowed to destroy Obama with all the trash they can find or invent — just like FOX. If you don’t believe that that’s FOX’s goal, just watch FOX for an hour — you’ll get the picture after 15 min.

Then, in the second part, Wallace implies that Obama’s decision not to go on FOX sooner affected his standing with white working class Democratic voters in Pennsylvania, implying that white working class Democratic voters in Pennsylvania actually watch FOX. This idea that there are Democrats who solely watch FOX for their news is a myth that has picked up considerable steam lately, and really for no good reason.

Why would any Democrat watch FOX? Most Democrats realize that FOX is nothing more than a Republican propaganda outlet and avoid watching it. If there are Democrats who don’t think FOX is a Republican propaganda outlet and believe it is giving them honest, unbiased news, well, they might as well be Republicans. After all, FOX’s entire reason for being is to destroy Democrats with a non-stop torrent of attacks while consistently celebrating everything about Republicans.

If a viewer even believed 1/10th of what they heard on FOX, they wouldn’t be able to support a Democrat in good conscience since Dems are constantly portrayed as Christianity-hating, baby-murdering, terrorist-appeasing, thieving, socialistic surrender monkeys. Even if a FOX viewer called himself a Democrat, he’d probably act like a republican — the Hill’s analysis of the 2004 election proved just that, as FOX viewers voted exactly like republicans. There are probably as many actual Democrats watching FOX as there are actual neo-nazis watching BET.  

What’s more, Republicans appear to feel no obligation or responsibility to go into enemy territory — I haven’t heard of John McCain’s plans to appear on Air America or do interviews with Bill Maher, Keith Olbermann, DailyKos, Firedoglake, Crooks & Liars, or the Huffington Post. Republicans barely even talk to assembled black people unless they’re on a sports team. Republicans know where they’re not wanted, so they don’t waste their time trying, and it didn’t seem to hurt their ability to win the presidency and both houses of Congress (though it’s starting to bite them in the ass now).

A candidate needs every vote he/she can get, but they don’t need the votes they can’t get — if they did, they’d lose. Democrats can win without FOX viewers. And they will.