Presidential candidate John Edwards has decided to pull out of a Democratic primary debate in August - in no small part because it is being co-hosted by the glorious FOX News Channel.

A statement from the former North Carolina senator’s camp also cited “scheduling conflicts” - the P.C. version of “not interested.”

David Rhodes, FOX News Channel VP of News, said it is “unfortunate that Sen. Edwards has decided to abandon an opportunity to reach the largest mainstream cable news audience in America.”

Sure thing, David. Maybe if Fox News didn’t employ the services of Ann Coulter, who last week called Edwards a fa**ot, he wouldn’t have a problem with them. But what do we know.

The Nevada Democratic Party’s choice of FOX as a co-host was met with scrutiny from more than just Edwards. Political websites as MoveOn.org, with an online petition urging Nevada Democrats to dump FOX from the debate, is spearheading the effort.

“We applaud John Edwards for sending a clear message to voters, the media, and other candidates: Fox is part of the right-wing smear machine and should not be treated like a legitimate news outlet,” said Eli Pariser, Executive Director of MoveOn.org.

Documentarian Robert Greenwald, whose website, FoxAttacks.com, made a short film about FOX News Channel just for the campaign, tells celebrity news blog TMZ that “John Edwards has shown guts, leadership and brains in being the first candidate to say no to the partisan propaganda arm.”

Edwards hasn’t always been anti-FOX News.

According to Anne Schroeder of Politico.com, Edwards appeared on FOX News Channel’s “Hannity and Colmes” as recently as January 23 - one of the 33 times Edwards has appeared on the network since August 2000.

It remains to be seen if the other two frontrunners, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton and Sen. Barack Obama, follow Edwards’ lead on this one.