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!
