Disaster For Republicans As Fox News Refuses To Name Debate Participants Until Last Minute

Fox News is creating a disaster for the Republican Party by keeping their criteria for the next GOP presidential debate secret and refusing to name the participants for the debate until the last minute.

The Hill reported:

Fox Business Network is the latest network to be criticized for how it decides who will be on the primetime presidential debate stage.

The network’s more restrictive criteria have already made clear that it’s likely to thin the number of candidates who will be on the all-important main stage.

But its decision not to divulge which polls will be used leaves candidates on the bubble uncertain of whether they’ll be on the main stage or relegate to the earlier debate. And it comes during an election cycle when various networks have been criticized for waffling on debate criteria as well whether the media at large has too much power in the debate process.

The problem is that Fox hasn’t let anyone know which polls they will be using to determine who makes the main stage.

The Republican Party has set up a situation where Fox News gets to set the criteria for the Fox Business debate and the network gets to determine who makes the main debate and when they will disclose to the campaigns who is in and who is out.

By trying to keep their debates restricted to “friendly” media, the RNC has completely lost control of the debate process. Fox, not voters, has decided that the Republican field is too big, so they are thinning the herd. If this all sounds undemocratic, that’s because it is. A giant corporation is getting to decide which candidates will move on and be taken seriously by voters.

The Republican Party has shot itself in the foot. Democrats may complain about the lack of debates on their side, but, at least, they don’t have the complete cluster fudge that Fox has created for the Republicans.

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Jason Easley

Jason is the managing editor. He is also a White House Press Pool and a Congressional correspondent for PoliticusUSA. Jason has a Bachelor’s Degree in Political Science. His graduate work focused on public policy, with a specialization in social reform movements.

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