Debate

Yesterday, I reported that NBC retracted their invitation made out to Kucinich to participate in tomorrows debate. Today a Nevada judge has ordered NBC to allow Kucinich to participate or face repurcussions. Senior Clark County District Court Judge Charles Thompson claimed, "it a matter of fairness and said Nevada voters will benefit by hearing from more than just top contenders." This is refreshing since this exactly what I have been advocating the whole time. NBC has filed an appeal with the Nevada Supreme Court. There is no reason to deny an elligible candidate to participate in our democratic process. We, the people decide who should win, not the media.

It seems like déjà vu all over again! Kucinich has once again been denied the opportunity to participate in a debate but instead of ABC, this time, it is NBC. What I found interesting about this occasion as opposed to the previous one was that Kucinich had been cordially invited to attend. A mere 44 hours later NBC notified Kucinich that they were, "excluding Kucinich from the debate" that is to take place on January 15.

NBC originally claimed that Kucinich met the criteria to participate in the Nevada Presidential Debate. After negating his invitation they claimed that they decided to change the criteria and wanted to focus on a three candidate debate. If you have not read my previous post about how I felt when ABC excluded him then read about it. I won't rant once again but I must acknowledge that I am disappointed with our media's behavior in this election process. They have been to anxious to be trendy that they have relied on polls to popularize one individual over the other. In Iowa they could not get enough of Obama and Huckabee. In New Hampshire it became Clinton and Romney, only after incorrectly raving all about Obama and Huckabee the week leading to the election. If the media did not learn the first time, then I shall repeat it once again. Stop telling us who we should vote for, do not speculate and give us poll numbers. Let us decided on election day and debate nights. Let us see all the available candidates. You have been able to run Richardson, Gravel and Dodd off but there is still Kucinich fighting it out. Let the people decide if they want to support him or not but do not deny him or any politician the opportunity to debate.

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!