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| NBC disinvites Kucinich to 1/15 debate | | |
Sponsor |  leelo | Jan 14, 11:11am | NBC un-plugs Kucinich from Presidential debate
Re-writes criteria to exclude candidate with 'dissenting' positions
Less than 44 hours after NBC sent a congratulatory note and an invitation to Ohio Congressman Dennis Kucinich to participate in the Jan. 15 Democratic Presidential debate in Las Vegas, the network notified the campaign this morning it was changing it announced criteria, rescinding its invitation, and excluding Kucinich from the debate.
NBC Political Director Chuck Todd notified the Kucinich campaign this morning that, although Kucinich had met the qualification criteria publicly announced on December 28, the network was "re-doing" the criteria, excluding Kucinich, and planning to invite only Senators Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama and former senator John Edwards. dailykos |
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Sponsor | | MarkPogue | Jan 15, 5:32pm | | Just in....Kucinich NOT in debates.:( |
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Sponsor | | leelo | Jan 15, 6:14pm | wtf?
i don't have a tv to check but i thought the judge was gonna shut the show down if they didn't let Dennis play!
edit: i guess the state supreme court overruled the district court latimesblogs. that's some fucked up shit.
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edit 1/16: Democracy Now! Re-Hosts NBC Las Vegas Debate to Include Kucinich After NBC Wins Appeal to Exclude Him
AMY GOODMAN: ...explain your lawsuit and what happened at the last minute last night as the case made its way through the courts of Las Vegas.
REP. DENNIS KUCINICH: NBC, GE, maintained--well, they--you know, we were invited and as a result of meeting criteria of being in the top four in a national poll. This was before Bill Richardson dropped out. And when I met the criteria, NBC then announced they had changed the criteria so it would only be the top three that would be invited.
We challenged that as a contract, and attorneys in Nevada won a case before a superior court judge, who said that NBC had an obligation to provide me with a place in the debate, and if they did not, he would stop the debate from happening.
NBC--and when that account was journalized, NBC then immediately contacted the Supreme Court, and a hearing was held. I was told it was an extraordinary hearing of all seven members of the Supreme Court, who--three of whom were in Carson City, Nevada and were teleconferenced in, and they heard a presentation by NBC's attorneys, who maintained that the debate was essentially a private matter and that no--you know, really little discussion on their part of any public interest came up. They alluded that, alternatively, this was a matter that should have been brought before the FCC, not a contract matter, and then, in the same breath, said that cable networks aren't [inaudible] to the FCC.
So we've--you know, we're in a conundrum here about what the public's rights are, because this goes far beyond my humble candidacy. It goes right to the question of democratic governance, whether a broadcast network can choose who the candidates will be based on their narrow concerns, because they've contributed--GE, NBC and Raytheon, another one of GE's property, have all contributed substantially to Democratic candidates who were in the debate. And the fact of the matter is, with GE building nuclear power plants, they have a vested interest in Yucca Mountain in Nevada being kept open; with GE being involved with Raytheon, another defense contractor, they have an interest in war continuing. So NBC ends up being their propaganda arm to be able to advance their economic interests.
AMY GOODMAN: Congressmember Kucinich, in the court filings, NBC painted itself as the victim. It said, "Mr. Kucinich's claim is nothing more than an illegitimate private cause of action designed to impose an equal access requirement that entirely undermines the wide journalistic freedoms enjoyed by news organizations under the First Amendment."
REP. DENNIS KUCINICH: Well, you know, the double [inaudible] here is apparent. First of all, they're, you know, broadcast licensees. NBC operates its network under the FCC Act of 1934, supposedly to function in the public interest, convenience and necessity. They do not do that. And some of the law they were citing related more to newspapers, which have a broad First Amendment protection, and newspapers, of course, are not licensed. You know, broadcast licensees have an altogether different responsibility. But they were claiming that they were shielded from that by a congressional action which exempts cable companies from FCC purview. So, you know, this is one of those things that my attorneys are going to take up with the FCC, certainly, but you haven't heard the last of legal action on our behalf here with respect to NBC.
I think that what they're trying to do is stack a presidential election using their broadcast media power, and they're doing it to further the interests of their own parent corporation, General Electric. And this is something that I am not going to stop challenging, because this is really important to issues of democratic governance, what kind of country we're going to have, because the corporations are really in a position where they're using the broadcast media to rig presidential elections by determining who's viable based on who gets coverage; in the advent of an election, who goes on the news shows and who is getting their contributions from their executives. This is a real serious matter. So I'm--
AMY GOODMAN: Congressmember Kucinich, had you understood you would be included in this debate? What was promised last week?
REP. DENNIS KUCINICH: I was. You know, of course it was my understanding I was going to be included in the debate. And here's--but, you know, Amy--
AMY GOODMAN: They said the top four candidates? Is that what they said last week? And then Richardson pulled out?
REP. DENNIS KUCINICH: Yeah, that's right.
AMY GOODMAN: And so, you then became number four?
REP. DENNIS KUCINICH: I imagine if Richardson hadn't pulled out and had been in fourth place, this wouldn't have been an issue. You know, there's an underlying question here, as well, and that is that: What right does the media have to establish the criteria as to who should be able to be in a debate in the first place, especially when they have corporate interests that could be affected by various candidates or appreciated by various candidates? So, you know, this is a profound issue of democratic governance, of our presidential--the integrity of our presidential selection process, and goes to the heart of the need for real reforms in the media...democracynow |
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Sponsor | | rationale | Jan 24, 7:01pm | | Its sickening how the media manipulates public opinion and subverts democracy. it is because of this that Kucinich did not get a chance to have his voice heard and is partially why he has announced that he will drop out of the presidential race. |
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| NBC disinvites Kucinich to 1/15 debate | | |
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