 Bernie Sanders recently ruffled a few feathers within the Democratic Party establishment and also among some Democratic Party voters by agreeing to do a town hall on Fox News. Now if you are a reasonable human being, it's obvious that Fox News isn't a real news organization. They have no credibility whatsoever. So the contention here is why would Bernie Sanders subject himself to a town hall on an illegitimate news network, especially after the DNC made it very clear that they're unwilling to allow Fox News to host any of the Democratic primary debates. And this actually touches on something that I talked about with Kyle Kalinsky on the Progressive Voices channel where we talked about responsible platforming and whether or not the left should go on illegitimate news sources in order to get the word across. So I want to read to you an article from Newsweek that kind of describes the conflict and the tensions that this kind of spawned pretty well. So the headline reads, Democrats ridicule Bernie Sanders over Fox News town hall plans, conservatives and moderates offer rare praise. So Benjamin Firnau of Newsweek reports, Vermont independent Senator Bernie Sanders angered many establishment Democrats and drew rare praise from conservatives over his plans to appear at a Fox News 2020 presidential campaign town hall later this month. Sanders was widely ridiculed by Democrats and supporters of 2020 rivals including Beto O'Rourke, Kamala Harris and even former Vice President Joe Biden's unannounced campaign backers who used the announcement as evidence the independent senator is not loyal to the Democratic Party. While voices such as the Intercepts Glenn Greenwald applauded Sanders for his open-minded outreach, mainline Democrats accused Sanders of courting conservative voters, promoting the cable news network's hateful Trump rhetoric and turning his back on the DNC. That's kind of funny. The Democratic National Committee announced last month it would exclude Fox News from hosting any debates in the 2020 election cycle. The infighting among 2020 Democratic candidates dredged up arguments over former DNC interim chairman Donna Brazil's collusion with Hillary Clinton's campaign to give her questions prior to March 2016 CNN town halls. Many supporters of Sanders' decision to appear on Fox News on April 15th in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania noted both Clinton and former President Barack Obama also appeared on Fox News several times in the previous years. Fox News host Howard Kurtz challenged other 2020 Democratic candidates and pondered if other Dems will realize ignoring a large audience makes no sense. So before I even address the substance of this article, I just gotta laugh at this line here, that Bernie Sanders is being accused of turning his back on the DNC. They just rigged an entire primary against him a couple of years ago. I don't think anyone is questioning whether or not the DNC is owed any respect by Bernie whatsoever. Also, there's this question, well, maybe he's not loyal to the Democratic party since he's bucking party orthodoxy or at least DNC orthodoxy with regard to this policy of not going on Fox News. But I think that that last line unfortunately by a conservative kind of convinced me, it was Howard Kurtz that said it. There's a large audience, so obviously it makes sense. Now, I've been up until this point kind of waffling back and forth here. I've been torn about this question of whether or not the DNC is logical in choosing to not allow Fox News to host the debate. Because on one hand, I totally understand that why would you legitimize a news organization that isn't really even a news organization? They're just the propaganda arm of the Republican Party. So I get that and that argument actually does make sense to me. But at the same time, a point that Kyle Kalinsky made in the talk that we did on Progressive Voice's channel, it completely resonated with me. Regardless if Fox News is objectively legitimate or not, millions of people view them as legitimate. They're number one in all of cable news. So like it or not, if we choose to not go on Fox News, we're just choosing to contain the progressive message that otherwise would resonate. Now, I've been very clear from the beginning that I don't think that Democratic Party presidential candidates need to be courting Republican voters. I think the goal ultimately is to get out the base, get people who don't usually vote to come out and vote for you. But with that being said, why would you willingly choose to deny people who would be maybe receptive to your message, that opportunity? It makes more sense, I think, for the DNC to allow for Fox News to host debates, even if they're going to be biased, even if, as David Pakman kind of talked about, they're going to turn up the heat to make the candidates feel more uncomfortable and look sweaty. We know what to expect from Fox News, but I think that basically this is where I've arrived and this is all kind of crystallizing in my head. I've come to this conclusion that I am pro going on Fox News, even if they are illegitimate, if you meet two requirements. So first of all, if you go on Fox News, but you don't sacrifice your principles, I'm okay with that. And in fact, I'd encourage you to go on. And second of all, if you go on Fox News and you never imply either tacitly or overtly that Fox News has more credibility than they deserve, then I'm also okay with that as well. So there was a lot of controversy over Glenn Greenwald's decision to go on Tucker Carlson's show to talk about Russiagabe. Now, I also felt uneasy about that. I didn't necessarily think that would be constructive because you're kind of implying that Fox News has more credibility overall than MSNBC. And even if MSNBC and CNN were objectively wrong on the issue of Russiagabe and Fox News happened to get it right for hacky reasons, well, you still should communicate to the Fox News audience that CNN and MSNBC getting it wrong on this particular issue doesn't suggest that Fox News is just objective and they have the truth on their side. This highlights an issue that all mainstream media news outlets have when it comes to the sensationalization of news stories. They all do what they need to do, cover what they think will be popular in order to drive ratings. And from there, you need to cite how Fox News did this with Ben Ghazi and some hosts on Fox News like Sean Hannity did this when it came to this disgusting Seth Rich conspiracy theory that he was spreading. So I think that if you go on Fox News and you one, don't sacrifice your principles and two, try not to make it seem as if Fox News is above the criticism that is traditionally lobbed at mainstream news outlets. I think that's a good thing for the left overall. Now, when it comes to you platforming conservatives on your show, I actually do think that's a little bit more of a fuzzy issue because if you're going to bring someone on who is insane, who has these radical far right extremist alt-right views, and if you're just going to conduct a Dave Rubin type interview where you don't challenge them and you're just sitting there and passively letting them spew garbage and misinformation, I do think that's harmful. So Joe Rogan just brought on Ben Shapiro. I think that is incredibly destructive because this is someone who is a far right extremist. So if you're going to platform someone, you've got to do it responsibly. But if we're going to go on other people's platforms, we still have to do it responsibly. But in the context of Bernie getting a progressive message out, in the context of Democratic Party candidates debating left wing principles, I don't think that it's a smart move strategically for us to shut ourselves out of that. Now, look, I'll admit, this is not a black and white issue. I actually do think that the legitimization issue is still kind of problematic because, again, I can't get past the fact that Fox News just is incredible. They have no integrity. They have no legitimacy. But at the same time, I also go back to Kyle's point about them being legitimate or viewed as legitimate, even if they're not objectively legitimate, by millions of people who tune in every single day. So I don't think that we should woefully choose to marginalize ourselves if we're spreading a progressive message that doesn't jeopardize our principles. So this is this is incredibly complicated. And it's why I've struggled with this issue. It's why I didn't initially talk about the DNC choosing to not go on Fox News for debates because I was genuinely conflicted, genuinely conflicted, because I think that this is something that is an issue. The left is still kind of grappling with this. We're still grappling how we converse with political opponents if they have very, very harmful and destructive views. And I think that a discussion between David Pakman and ContraPoints, it also helped kind of put things into perspective. ContraPoints maintained that it's perfectly acceptable. If you're going to talk to people who have grotesque views, if you're able to challenge them on those views, but some people just they don't have the personality, the aggressive personality needed to challenge people like Dave Rubin. He just doesn't have the personality to challenge these right wing loony tunes. I mean, he brought on what's his name, Stephen Mullanew. He brings on Ben Shapiro and lets him espouse homophobic propaganda that him as a gay man could easily debunk and challenge, but he doesn't. So you also have to have the right personality to forcefully push back against these harmful ideas. And you also really need to be able to be a responsible, knowledgeable individual who knows what to look for, who knows when something that they're saying may actually inadvertently harm the left. So overall, I'm definitely pro this town hall. I think that if you can kind of reach new voters and win them over, then you have no reason to not try to do that, which is why I kind of do think maybe it's not smart for the DNC to not allow Fox News to host a debate because you know what to expect. But even if the hosts will undoubtedly be biased, I mean, it's still about getting out that message. And I do think it's important for us to try to penetrate these echo chambers that otherwise would just hear the right wing perspective. So this is a complex issue, but I do think that Bernie Sanders, by and large, is right to go on Fox News and do this town hall because it's just I don't really think there's anything net negative that's going to happen. There's some, you know, cons here, but I think that the pros overall outweigh the cons in this situation. But I am curious to know your thoughts. So comment down below if you're watching this on YouTube because I think that this is a very complex issue and it's tricky. You know, there's a lot of nuances here and a lot of potentially unforeseen consequences that maybe we're all not seeing. But overall, I'm convinced that going on other platforms so long as you challenge them, it's important, it's constructive, by and large.