It shouldn't matter if you support any of these candidates. Disney's ABC network is acting in an anti-democratic, anti-American way. We must send them a message.
Disney has contributed to four Dem candidates. Disney's ABC network is only allowing those four Dem candidates to participate in the New Hampshire debate and disallowing the participation of Dennis Kucinich and Mike Gravel, and on the Republican side, is excluding Duncan Hunter.
Who the hell is Disney/ABC to tell American voters who they should listen to? They had threatened to exclude Ron Paul, but apparently, he met their arbitrary performance criteria in Iowa. Back in 1992, Bill Clinton only pulled 3% in Iowa. I wonder if they would have excluded him from a New Hampshire debate, given their current attitude. This is taking media interference in the election process to an intolerable, obscene new level.
How do you spell a-d-v-e-r-t-i-s-e-r b-o-y-c-o-t-t?
Recently, Ron Paul supporters were encouraged to sell their stock in Fox News Corp (Paul Supporters Fight Back-- Dump Fox News). How effective we could be if only we were sitting on vast hordes of Disney stock!
Until recently, corporations were legally forbidden from influencing elections in any way. Only a few years ago, the FCC had a mandate to regulate.
This move by ABC is not the first. NBC blocked Mike Gravel from their Philadelphia debate. But this is the worst case yet. It should not be allowed to stand.
AP reports,
Democratic presidential candidate Dennis Kucinich filed a complaint with the FCC on Friday after ABC News excluded him, fellow Democrat Mike Gravel and Republican Duncan Hunter from its prime-time debates on Saturday.
Kucinich argued that ABC is violating equal-time provisions by keeping him out of the debate and noted that ABC's parent Walt Disney Co. had contributed to campaigns involving the four Democrats who were invited.
"ABC should not be the first primary," the Ohio congressman said in papers filed at the Federal Communications Commission.
The AP article also reported ABC's rationale.
The network set rules to narrow the field. Candidates had to meet at least one of three criteria: place first through fourth in Iowa, poll 5 percent or higher in one of the last four major New Hampshire surveys, or poll 5 percent or higher in one of the last four major national surveys.
Disney/ABC has no right to set these arbitrary criteria. If Dodd and Biden had not withdrawn from the race, ABC could have been rejecting five legitimate candidates.
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