ABC Primetime Debate Censorship
By DAVID ORTEZ on January 05, 2008
ABC has excluded Kucinich, Gravel and Hunter from the Saturday primetime debate. Kucinich filed a complaint with the FCC citing a violation of equal-time provisions. ABC has responded by explaining that they had extablished benchmarks in order to filter the field of candidates due to the depth of the questions.
I think that it is a mistake to negate eligble candidates the opportunity to debate. It sends a clear signal to the average viewer who does not have the time to keep up with every candidate that if the candidate is not on stage, they must not be participating anymore. Although I will acknowledge that the original intentions of ABC were benevolent in order to make the debates more productive it is obvious that the number of candidates has dwindled with Biden and Dodd stepping out. Thus, a news network does not have to decide who it invites to debates, the people will stop voting or supporting a candidate that forces them to step down. The media should not deny nor cherrypick the candidates it wishes to expose to the voters. That's the job of us, the voters!
While I do agree that the
While I do agree that the media should not censure candidates and there should be equal time for the candidates, for the sake of voters. I do not believes that the candidates that are not in the debate would appeal to the mainstream viewers. The people that intend to vote for these candidates (who are not appearing) get their political information for other media sources. So while I find it to be unfair, I do not believe there would be a huge impact on either the candidates or the views if they were to appear on tonight's debates.
Thanks for taking the time
Thanks for taking the time to repsond to my post. Even if the candidates do not appeal to mainstream viewers it is still part of our democratic foundation to offer everyone an equal opportunity. Most of the "mainstream" candidates only achieve this position through the large amounts of donations they have been able to collect in order to promote themselves. The candidates with not so deep pockets should at least be given the chance to show America what they have to offer. I would rather not vote for a candidate because I did not agree with them than because I did not even know they were eligible for office.
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