Elizabeth Warren proved she was a leader by refusing to be used by Fox News

This week, Elizabeth Warren announced that she would not be participating in a Fox News town hall, branding the propaganda machine masquerading as a news network “a hate-for-profit racket.” In a series of tweets, she elaborated on why she’d chosen to refuse their invitation: “Hate-for-profit works only if there’s profit, so Fox News balances a mix of bigotry, racism, and outright lies with enough legit journalism to make the claim to advertisers that it’s a reputable news outlet,” she explained. “It’s all about dragging in ad money — big ad money.”

Noting Fox News has recently struggled to keep advertisers as criticism of the network and some of its biggest stars —Tucker Carlson and Laura Ingraham in particular — continue to grow, the Democratic presidential candidate effectively said she would not allow her name to be exploited in an effort to lend them the legitimacy they need to keep generating revenue.

“A Democratic town hall gives the Fox News sales team a way to tell potential sponsors it's safe to buy ads on Fox — no harm to their brand or reputation (spoiler: It’s not),” Warren said.

Warren’s declaration has rightfully generated headlines, but the racism on Fox News has never been opaque. From Bill O’Reilly to Sean Hannity to Megyn Kelly to insert-just-about-any-other-anchor here, their business model of selling to white old people xenophobia has long been evident. They routinely trivialize black deaths at the hands of the state while stoking fears about black people, Muslims, women, and LGBTQ people; anyone, basically, who qualifies as “other”.

Brit Hume and other Fox News anchors may feel a certain way about Warren’s phrasing, but some of their former black Fox News colleagues like Eboni Williams only a month ago declared on Power 105.1’s The Breakfast Club, “Fox has a reputation for being bigoted and racist, all for very good reason.”

Roses are red, violets are blue, if you’re just now realizing that Fox News is like if the old Soviet Union had a baby with a burning cross, congratulations, you’re a fool.

When Bernie Sanders decided to do a Fox News town hall after the Democratic National Committee barred the network from doing a presidential debate for reasons similar to those espoused by Warren, it was to great ratings success. That led to some of his competitors, such as Senator Amy Klobuchar, to follow suit; Pete Buttigieg is set to do so this coming Sunday. Others like Cory Booker are said to be in talks for their own town hall special with the network.

Frankly, I am not convinced one needs to jump on Fox News to pursue these purported swing voters. How much can someone swing politically really if they choose to expose themselves to that level of commentary daily?

It’s important to note that Elizabeth Warren has not completely shut out Fox News. She has allowed their reporters access to her campaign. She just recently campaigned in white rural areas of the country full of those ugly red hats that are all the rage among racist apparel enthusiasts. She has engaged with the free press in a normal way. She’s just chosen not to have her name and image used in a way her conscience doesn’t agree with. Warren has taken a stand, and hopefully some of her fellow Democratic presidential candidates will join her.

Donna Brazile may be happy to do otherwise, but thank goodness a Democrat with national name recognition has said, “Not me, sis.”

As fate would have it, I was recently asked to appear on a primetime Fox News show. In their request, I noticed they made attempts to differentiate themselves from the other programming bloc. I assumed that in their Google search of me, they realized I was black and assumed that, because of that, I may have an immediate issue with the network.

I politely declined for the same reasons Elizabeth Warren did.

Yes, there are some benefits to being seen by such a large audience, but I can’t in good faith ever pretend not to know what has been said about people like me on Fox News. A few weeks later, I noticed racist blowhard Rush Limbaugh on the same show. I wasn’t surprised.

People know what Fox News is — but not everyone is willing to take a meaningful stand against it. In doing so, Elizabeth Warren proved she is a principled leader.