The rapprochement between the Democrats and the cable network comes as the focus of the primary race is shifting from party loyalists to the kind of swing voters who share Fox News' populist sensibilities. The channel is an especially desirable forum on the eve of Tuesday's Democratic primary in Indiana, in which Republican and independent voters can also cast ballots.
"It's a good vehicle to reach a lot of the kind of voters that both Sens. Clinton and Obama want to talk to right now: It's got a solid, blue-collar, middle-class, middle-of-the-road audience," said Democratic strategist Bill Carrick, who is not working for either candidate. "This thing about it being the network of just conservative viewers is just not really true."
A survey of 10,000 people last year by consumer research firm Mediamark Research found that 39% of Fox News' viewers described themselves as being very or somewhat conservative, 47% as middle-of-the-road or undecided, and 14% as very or somewhat liberal. By comparison, CNN's audience is 33% conservative, 47% middle-of-the-road and 20% liberal.
"I was very frustrated when we were the target of this boycott, but I always felt that eventually they would come around, because they need to reach out to our audience," Wallace said. "It has nothing to do with Fox News. It has everything to do with the people who watch Fox News."
The thaw between the network and the Democrats demonstrates the enduring strength of the channel, which has emerged as a political lightning rod in the last decade.
Critics complain that it leans to the right and parrots talking points from the Bush administration. Democrats were especially outraged after "Fox & Friends" anchors last year discussed a now-debunked report in a conservative magazine claiming that Obama had studied at a madrasa, an Islamic religious school, as a child. (The anchors later clarified that Obama said it was false.)
Network executives say there's a difference between the channel's daytime news programs and outspoken nighttime commentators, who they say serve as a counterweight to a liberal media establishment.
Bloggers who mounted the anti-Fox News campaign last year hoping to marginalize the network were dismayed by the major interviews Obama and Clinton granted the channel this week. Websites such as OpenLeft and Daily Kos were bombarded with incredulous postings.
