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Contested Debate Turns Into Major Battle

Jan 16, 2008  •  Post A Comment

Lisa HowfieldDemocratic presidential candidate Dennis Kucinich—who got invited, then uninvited, to participate in MSNBC’s Democratic debate last night in Las Vegas—is angry.
Lisa Howfield, general manager of Sunbelt Communications’ KVBC-TV, NBC’s Las Vegas station, isn’t thrilled, either. She wanted to air the debate live, and 45 minutes before it started learned that she couldn’t.
In one of the more unusual campaign fisticuffs of the presidential year, MSNBC’s presidential debate fight last night became as big a fight in the hours before the debate as during it.
It also became a bit of a mad scramble for KVBC-TV and KRNV-TV in Reno, Nev., also owned by Sunbelt, with both stations aborting plans to carry the debate minutes before they were to air MSNBC’s coverage.
While the debate, hosted by NBC anchor Brian Williams and “Meet the Press” host Tim Russert, turned into a polite discussion among Sens. Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton and former Sen. John Edwards, the pre-debate fight was far more forceful and longer, too. It erupted in two Nevada courts over several days, ending just minutes before the debate began.
At least it appeared to end. The issues in the fight could yet have reverberations in Congress and at the FCC.
Rep. Kucinich, D-Ohio, argued in Nevada courts that MSNBC treated him unfairly, publicly announcing rules for standards for debate participation on Dec. 28, congratulating him on qualifying, then 44 hours later altering its standards to limit the debate to three candidates.
MSNBC admitted changing its terms, but said New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson’s decision to drop out of the race on Jan. 10 forced a re-evaluation.
“In the wake of Gov. Richardson’s decision, we have revised the criteria. Only those candidates who have received double-digit support from the voters in Iowa and New Hampshire have been invited to participate,” the cable channel said before the debate.
Mr. Kucinich argued that the change wasn’t fair, saying NBC effectively created a contract when it announced its standards in December.
“The debate is not a true presidential primary candidate without including all credible candidates, but instead is effectively an endorsement of the candidates selected by NBC,” he argued in court, winning the judge’s ruling in his favor on Monday.
The judge’s order that MSNBC either include Mr. Kucinich or cancel the debate was overturned by the Nevada Supreme Court 45 minutes before the debate began on Tuesday.
The Supreme Court conducted an unusual voice hearing to hear the case. NBC, in order to get the ruling acted on more quickly, reversed its permission for the two Nevada broadcast stations to air the cable network debate. NBC’s move effectively removed FCC fairness doctrine issues as a factor in the case, because it only applies to broadcast stations.
That left Mr. Kucinich and the TV stations out.
“This isn’t about me. Campaigns come and go,” said Mr. Kucinich after the ruling. “The question is … our democracy must not come and go.” He promised to consult attorneys.
Station executives said they had expected the Supreme Court’s ruling at about 4 p.m. Tuesday, and its lateness caused some rushing around.
“Not knowing what was going to happen, we had to prepare to do a 6 p.m. newscast or carry the debate. We created two logs, one for the debate, one for regular programming,” said Ms. Howfield.
She said it was not clear until 5:20 p.m. which program would air.
“I’m taking a lot of heat for not running the debate,” Ms. Howland said. “I wanted to run the debate.”
Ralph Toddre, Sunbelt’s president and chief operating officer, said he was disappointed as well.
“I spent a good part of the day on the phone with NBC,” he said.

44 Comments

  1. This is utter bullshit. I was with Kucinich when he received word that the judge had ruled in his favor. The was friggin celebration that someone had the common sense and decency to speak up against NBC…err General Electric. To have common sense overturned by technicalities such as the debate not being on broadcast TV is shit ladened and undemocratically inexcusable. It’s no wonder why my country is starting to smell like shit.

  2. It would seem, that judges no longer have the good of the country, good of the community to conceder, they make decisions, souly on their own agenda, I don’t think there is an HONEST judge left in this country, Justice is for sale, period!

  3. I think it’s time we regulate the TV networks when it comes to presidential debates. There needs to be guidelines set way before any of this starts. Dennis got hosed, and I hope NBC and the other networks get what they deserve. Ken is right about it smelling like shit.

  4. So let’s see if I have got this straight. In order to block Dennis Kucinich from appearing in the debate, the corporate legal girls and boys from MSNBC argued to dump their own over the air affiliates in order to circumvent the Fairness Doctrine regulations?
    Wow, that sure shows a lot of respect for the local Nevada affiliates and the people of Nevada. Guess we only want certain types of people in America to have only certain options to choose only those candidates that we feel appropriate. Thank you so much, MSNBC for believing in democracy.

  5. There are going to be many more ‘undemocratic’
    events to come in this campaign. The one who will occupy the Office in 2009 would find out that ONE decision had been made for him: MOST of his STAFF [Secretaries & other important posts] would have to come from the COUNCIL ON FOREIGN RELATIONS, NY.

  6. Richardson drops out and NBC drops Kucinich who is still a contender? Now that NBC has decided who the three contending democratic primary candidates will be, why bother to cast a ballot? And what of “The Peoples Right” in the matter? If in fact “The People” are to decide, perhaps “The People” want to make an informed decision.
    I am in shock that NBC would hide behind the First Amendment while depriving Mr. Kucinich the right to speak.
    And the three candidates that are going to “change” big business and stand up for the American citizen showed their true colors. Those candidates stood by and watched, yet again, as the rights of “The People” were squandered at the expense of big business. Not one of the three took a stand for the right of the people to hear and make an informed decision. As to unity and bringing people together, if this is an example, no thank you. If you will stand idly by and choose self preservation over “The People” once you will do it again. And I surmise all three will hide behind the court ruling that decided a business has more of a right than a citizen of this country. It is just plain undemocratic!

  7. Unbelievable! However imperfect the courts were a decade ago, things have grown immeasurably worse. Consider all the weak, unthinking judges that GW has appointed in the last eight years simply to placate the religious right. Things go in a straight line right back to Gore v Bush in 2000 when crooked Justice Scalia declined to recuse himself even though he was a longtime friend of Cheney’s. Without Scalia’s vote, Bush wouldn’t have been elected because the recounts would have continued per the Florida Supreme Court decision.

  8. Regardless of whether one agrees with the editorial decision not to include Kucinich, it was NBC’s Constitutional right to make it. Having the government–in this case a court–step in and subvert that right would have been a far greater threat to democracy than not hearing from Dennis Kucinich would.

  9. Americans are having their presidential candidates pre-selected by major corporations who profit by war (NBC MSNBC GE RAYTHEON)
    Corporations who profit and have ties with health insurance companies choose our candidates.
    The media Blackout of Dennis Kucinich should be a wake up call to Americans.
    We should be out in the streets – demanding free elections. Our country claims to be “exporting democracy” to the middle east and arouind the world. How can we “export” what we do not have here at home?
    People SHOULD realise there is something wrong – WHY would the corporations want to prevent people from hearing this guy? WHAT is it he will say that they go to such extremes to keep his voice from the voters.
    America — WAKE UP !! You have lost your country!

  10. Americans are having their presidential candidates pre-selected by major corporations who profit by war (NBC MSNBC GE RAYTHEON)
    Corporations who profit and have ties with health insurance companies choose our candidates.
    The media Blackout of Dennis Kucinich should be a wake up call to Americans.
    We should be out in the streets – demanding free elections. Our country claims to be “exporting democracy” to the middle east and arouind the world. How can we “export” what we do not have here at home?
    People SHOULD realise there is something wrong – WHY would the corporations want to prevent people from hearing this guy? WHAT is it he will say that they go to such extremes to keep his voice from the voters.
    America — WAKE UP !! You have lost your country!

  11. Sorry Scott but when it comes to political debates and the rights of ALL Americans, I think NBC’s right gets trumped for the greater good. As a media corporation broadcasting over the AMERICAN airwaves NBC and ALL media outlets have and OBLIGATION to ALL Americans to be honest, fair and unbiased. What is so scary is that these big corporations with their BILLIONS of dollars are selling our democracy short just to ensure their own agenda. Its time for public funding of ALL elections and ALL media outlets radio and TV should be regulated when it comes to airing debates. Its our democracy and its not for sale. But BUSH and his crooked friends have stolen most of it. They can’t hide the dirt much longer. Sorry guys but when he gets kicked out of office the fun really begins.

  12. Thank goodness for Amy Goodman and Free Speech TV – she gave Dennis a chance to speak the next day on Democracy NOW! There is such a concerted effort to wipe Dennis out – it is such a blatant attempt at control that I marvel at the public passivity. mary lasley

  13. This is corporatacracy at its’ finest hour. Will the people ever wake up and roar for democracy?
    It should be the responsibility of MSNBC not only to pay Kucinichs’ travel costs, but the attorney fees as well, since they have so much to pay their own to “rush Judgement”.

  14. Something here just doesn’t make sense. The Fairness Doctrine was abandoned by the FCC in 1985 and is no longer in effect. Also, as to the argument that the failure to include Mr. Kucinich would be a tantamount to an endorsement of the remaining candidates, so what? Newspapers endorse candidates all the time, and broadcast stations are equally permitted to do so. There is no FCC rule against a TV or radio station endorsing candidates (even the “political editorial” rule, which gave other candidates rights to time if a station endorsed a candidate, has been eliminated by Federal Court order) and BCRA has an exception for media editorials and news coverage.
    If it was some conservative or libertarian being excluded from the debate you wouldn’t be complaining. Kucinich and Ron Paul are fringe candidates and just want to get their messages out. Neither has a chance of being elected. So quit your whining.

  15. It seems to me that there is someone out there who isn’t interested in people hearing the truth. If that wasn’t the case, what would the harm be if they feel that Kucinich is that far off base?
    I heard Dennis Kucinich speak in San Francisco last Spring and was very impressed by what he had to say, he is very passionate and dedicated to Truth as he sees it.
    A few years back there were candidates that couldn’t even buy airtime it was so regulated by the few.
    We live in the illusion of Democracy…
    There is no conspiracy going on either…
    What we don’t know and aren’t to be aware of can only hurt us after the few have made and hid their millions or billions as the case may be.
    We are being raped from the top, and we are smilingly going like a lamb to the slaughter. I’m reminded of the poster that was out a few years back where there are thousands of sheep following one another off the cliff. There is one little black one in the center going the other direction saying “Excuse me, Excuse me???”
    “Some things are right even if no one else is doing them and some things are wrong even if everyone else is doing them.” I read that quote, not verbatim, in a courthouse in Southern Utah a few years ago, and it stuck with me as truth…
    I met a Hopi Prophet a few years back who said that it was his calling to “Gather the Pure in Heart.” I wonder who will be included in that gathering?
    Truth is!
    I watched the movie The Kingdom the other night… It is evident why we stay in the Middle East! We butter their bread and build their Palaces while paying exorbitant prices for their oil, but actually who is really profiting the most? Who gets the cut in the middle? Who is paying for their oil many times over? We start by buying cars which aren’t allowed to have the technology installed in them to give us higher mileage per gallon, that is unless we pay for it? Next we buy gas, then we pay again as we buy groceries because transportation costs to deliver our food have escallated. Oil fields get bombed, wars are fabricated and we follow blindly, knowing that those at the top would always be working for our higher good, they are Christian, for Christ’s sake.
    Our World leaders profit from the creation of their wars, our sons die, and their sons die and their Mommas and their babies die in the name of our National Security. Our children go without health care in the name of National Securtiy, our children and our schools are deprived of adequate funding, our teachers suffer, Social Security is cut, we we keep paying over and over for our oil and who is profitting during each cut?
    I am really just attempting to make a point here… as Truth is so exaggeratedly apparent from my perspective.
    Wake up America, smell the Roses…
    And maybe, just maybe with prayers in my heart, the people of Iraq will be blessed somehow in the middle of all this. May the religious fanatics of the world realize that God is too big to be owned by a small few who believe themselves to be “More Special” than the rest. I pray also, that somehow, once we figure out how to recover from the recession we are crashing into that the people of the US will have more of a sense of themselves, of Truth, of what good government consists of, and what is really important in the Big Picture?
    Civilizations rise and fall, from within, this is not a new story, corruption has just reached it’s climax and it too shall fall. Lives will be lost and Heros will rise… and the story will go on. We are the ones who will shape the future… The Hopi prophecies say “Be the ones you’ve been waiting for!”
    And we aren’t allowed to speak… yet!

  16. Kucinich is a badass. He tells the truth like it’s going out of fashion. Even if he doesn’t win every primary or even one primary, he still should be among the “favored” ones. When it really comes down to it, the “top” candidates are blowing smoke (and not to mention crying) only to cloud people’s perceptions about what their views really are and what goals they have for the future. Sad, and it will continue to be more sad as the future of our country looks very bleak.

  17. “Kucinich and Ron Paul are fringe candidates”
    Strange, they also happen to be the only ones who are not pro-Israel.

  18. Nadir, please cite the source of your statement about Kucinich not being pro-Israel.

  19. Is this the same GM who fired the promo assistant the week after christmas because of a cluttered closet?
    Sounds like a great place to work.

  20. The Good Ol Boys from Texas are pulling the strings that control puppet regimes in many countries…including ours. These International Corporations like GE pay homage to no flag. Pres / Gen. Eisenhower warned us all, but no one listened. The Military Industrial complex (NeoCons) control the media,the court systems, even the voting machine companies are part of their group. This whole election is being choreographed for their amusement. The outcome is already known. Mitt Romney is their chosen successor to Bush. All his advisors come from the NeoCom camp. Kucinich & others haven’t a chance

  21. Hey Budd,
    You would know about justice being for sale. After all you sold your own granddaughter to the highest bidder!! You have also refused tohelp a daughter of yours with real issues. But thats not the topic here. You see and hear only what you want – just like the judges.
    Sounds to me like acase of the pot calling he kettle black!

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