There are likely going to be at least a dozen, probably more, debates between the Democratic Presidential contenders. One organization considering hosting such a debate is the Congressional Black Caucus, considered by many, including myself, to be the moral conscience of the United States Congress.

The CBC, however, is considering a partnership with Fox "News" to televise that debate, which is in turn raising hackles among activists.

Markos writes:

Now with the Nevada Democratic Party ditching propaganda outlet Fox News as a co-sponsor of its debate, attention is turning to the Congressional Black Caucus, which is choosing between CNN and Fox for its own debate. African American activists are putting pressure on the CBC to choose CNN.

Afro-netizen concurs:

In September of 2003 the Congressional Black Caucus co-sponsored a Democratic presidential candidate debate with Fox News at Baltimore HBCU, Morgan State University. Progressive-minded Blackfolk should have acted then, and we simply have no excuse not to act today towards keeping it (and any of its affiliated organizations) accountable.

How bad is the conservative cable channel, Fox, in describing Black Americans? Consider this video:

The Nevada Democratic Party recently pulled out of an agreement with Fox "News" to have that channel broadcast a Democratic debate, citing the vicious attacks made by its chairman, and lifelong hard-right republican activist, Roger Ailes, on Barack Obama and other Democrats, including John Edwards. The CBC, generally speaking an association of some of the finest men and women in American politics (note the William Jefferson exception), should follow on the trail blazed by Nevada. There is no reason for Democrats in general, and black Democrats in particular, to legitimize with their presence a network whose only purpose is to defame all of us.

Black activists, organized in a coalition called Color of Change, are calling for the CBC to partner with CNN in broadcasting the debate.

Black bloggers and media experts also joined the call for the CBC Institute to freeze out Fox from presidential debates. One of those experts is Benjamin Todd Jealous, former executive director of the National Newspaper Publishers Associations (NNPA), a 98-year old federation of more than 200 Black community newspapers.

“Fox has a long history of treating Black people unfairly,” said Jealous, “They are not a trusted news source for most Black Americans.” Chris Rabb, Founder/Chief Evangelist of Afro-Netizen.com – a top African American political blog– added, “We urge the CBC Institute to lead with integrity and to not make a deal with the devil.”

This is as close to a no-brainer as it's possible to get. As Ben Smith notes over at The Politico, "Fox intermittently gets into racially-charged spats, but I don't recall the CBC, an old-fashioned D.C. institution, ever being the focus of this kind of public campaign, and it'll be interesting to see how they respond.".

Interesting indeed.

[Update]: ThinkProgress reports that the CBC will partner with CNN. Good work.

[Update 2]: In the comments, ColorOfChange.org notes that the CBC is still talking to Fox. Not good.