WIRE SERVICES BOYCOTT REPUBLICAN DEBATE

Fox News had major coverage of the Republican presidential primary debate pretty much all to itself Friday night. It was unclear who had been responsible for instigating rules limiting coverage of the debate by photographers — Fox itself, the South Carolina Republican Party, or both, but the two major wire services, the Associated Press and Reuters, would have none of it and boycotted the affair. In a statement AP senior managing editor Michael Oreskes said, “The opening stages of an event as important as the presidential selection process should be as accessible as possible to all forms of journalism.”