Keith Boykin has an interesting perspective on the CBC Institute and Fox News debate.  Boykin is a media star, having broken out on American Candidate.  He's written important books on homophobia and civil rights in the black community, appeared on Fox News, and is also the host of the BET J television show.  Here's his musings on the deal.

To be honest, I have to admit that I have mixed feelings on this issue. Having been on Fox News myself several times to debate O'Reilly and others, I understand the idea of going to your opponents to argue against them. And true, there might be some moderate Fox News viewers who would walk away with a better understanding of black voter concerns if they had exposure to a CBC-sponsored debate.

But in this case, the idea of the CBC holding a debate on Fox News runs the risk of legitimizing a news network that many consider to be anti-black. It gives Fox News a new audience (even for a short period of time) and allows them to argue that they are unbiased. In the end, I think it helps Fox News more than it helps the Congressional Black Caucus, and that's why I'm not inclined to support this idea.

Jill Tubman of Jack and Jill Politics is also frustrated.

Looks like the voices of 12,000 people of color don't mean much when there's money involved. How much you ask? Well, the debate is being run by the CBC Institute. But while one hand is stirring the greens, the other hand is frying chicken.

Guess it takes a whole lot of grease to fry the CBC's chicken. Grease MSNBC and other networks must not be handing over quite as liberally to CBC-related organizations. In 2002, the CBC Foundation was given an undisclosed amount from Fox News and parent company News Corp. Between 2003-2005, they gave the CBC somewhere between $47,500 to $98,998 with numbers for 2006 still unavailable. Don't believe me. Get the facts here and take a look at CBCF's donor list.

Are our leaders purchased so cheaply? Surely the CBC is not just a bunch of grinning handkerchief heads. Fox News is consistently racist and has ulterior motives for these debates in terms of influencing black opinion. This cannot stand.

Left-wing marginalization from broadcast media discourse has a long history, but the degree we've seen recently is exceptional.  Black marginalization though from broadcast media discourse is and always has been the rule and not the exception.  And to be clear, Foundations and think tanks in DC accept huge amounts of money from corporate interests, it's how a lot of business gets done.  That's not to say it's good, but it is also not isolated to the CBC Foundation.

Regardless, this is a good moment for progressive African-American activists to use the internet to force the CBC to hew to the interests of the people it ostensibly represents.  Color of Change is growing out of just this kind of frustration with the ego-covering going on within the CBC.  It's a standard internet cultural response to an excessively brittle system that doesn't allow the public voice to have a say.  And the CBC Institute signing this deal with Fox News suggests this kind of institutional inflexibility.