Fox News Forum May Signal Thaw Between Democrats and Network

The New York Times reports:

“I always thought it was a mistake to ignore them,” said David Axelrod, a former senior strategist to the Obama campaign and White House who now contributes to CNN. He added: “Obviously there’s a bent to Fox and the viewer. But they have a pretty large audience, and they’re not all conservative Republicans. There are independent voters there.”

The network is seeing tremendous viewership and interest in the 2016 campaign. In the primary and caucus-laden month of February, Fox was not just the No. 1 cable news network, but it was the No. 1 cable network in total viewers in both prime time and the full day.

For the Sanders campaign, reaching this broad audience was an important goal.

“I don’t think we think that boycotting that network is a way to gain political advantage with voters,” said Tad Devine, Mr. Sanders’s senior campaign adviser. Mr. Devine said he expected to see Mr. Sanders on the network a lot more. “If we have these opportunities in the future, I think we’ll try and take advantage of them,” he said.

The Democrats look for ratings.