NBC Rewrites its Own Rules to Prevent America from Hearing Kucinich

Posted by Joshua Holland, AlterNet at 2:06 PM on January 11, 2008.

As a political writer, I have to follow these endless primary-season debates. But when it comes to NBC's Democratic show-down in Vegas next Tuesday, I'll read the transcript and check out the highlights on YouTube, but I won't tune into NBC's live broadcast.

Here's a press release from the Kucinich campaign explaining why:

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 its 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.

The criteria announced last month included a fourth-place or better showing in a national poll. The USA/Gallup poll earlier this month showed Kucinich in fourth place among the Democratic contenders.

In an email to the Kucinich campaign at 2:35 p.m. on Wednesday, January 9, Democratic Party debates consultant Jenny Backus wrote:

"Congratulations on another hard-fought contest. Now that New Hampshire is over, we are on to Nevada and our Presidential Debate on Tuesday January 15. This letter serves as an official invitation for your candidate to participate in the Nevada Presidential Debate at Cashman Theatre in downtown Las Vegas. You have met the criteria set by NBC and the Debate."

Todd notified the Kucinich campaign this morning that the network had decided to change the criteria and limit participation in the debate to only three candidates.

[SNIP]

The Kucinich campaign, which filed an emergency complaint with the Federal Communications Commission last week because of ABC's decision to exclude the candidate from a nationally televised debate, is considering legal action to address "the blatant disregard of the public interest in silencing public debate that dissents with the views of NBC, its parent company, GE, and all of the military contractors and their candidate-funding corporate interests. Corporate control of the media is one issue. Corporate media control of the information that is allowed to reach American citizens is much more dangerous, much more sinister, and much more un-American."

"When 'big media' exert their unbridled control over what Americans can see, hear, and read, then the Constitutional power and right of the citizens to vote is being vetoed by multi-billion corporations that want the votes to go their way," the Kucinich campaign said.

Would you consider joining me in letting NBC know that we're just sick of this nonsense?

If so, indignant-but-polite is, I've found, the best tone to take when griping to the media about their all-too-frequently-crappy political coverage.

NBC News contact form
MCNBC Feedback
Another one for MSNBC
Chuck Todd (Note: may be out of date)

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Update: Here's what I sent to Todd [Update: it bounced back] and the other NBC addresses:

Dear Mr. Todd,

I’m writing to express my dismay about NBC’s decision to re-write its own previously announced criteria in order — specifically, it seems — to exclude Dennis Kucinich, the fourth-place finisher in at least one major national poll, from the Las Vegas debate.

I am not of the belief that Rep. Kucinich has a chance to win the nomination, but that's beside the point. It appears to me that our political press corps, yourself included, are simply blind to the intense feelings of frustration among many of us “out here” in America every time the media tries to narrow the ideological spectrum and limit our political debates. I am among almost 300 million people who have not had an opportunity to cast my vote in the primary, and it is the height of arrogance for you and NBC to tell me, in effect, that only 3 of the 4 candidates who met your announced criteria are acceptable choices, or that only the views of 3 of the 4 are acceptably “mainstream.”
His "viability" is not an issue; Kucinich is not in this race to win. He’s in it to influence the political discourse within the Democratic party, and as a Democratic-leaning independent, I would like to see the full spectrum of Democratic opinions aired and debated. It is maddening to have NBC deny us that process, especially so many months before the convention and with only a few small states having gone to the polls.

But even that isn't nearly as infuriating as the egregious disrespect shown to a member of the House of Representatives who’s been sent back to Washington by his constituents five times. I’ll be frank: to extend the invitation, and then rewrite your own rules in order to withdraw it makes it difficult for me to even maintain a civil tone.

I won’t be watching your debate — it will be the first one I skip — because I don’t want to support the idea that the media decides these elections and the voters are merely an afterthought. I will also write about your network’s hubris on my blog and urge my friends and acquaintances to boycott the debate as well. Hopefully, General Electric will receive a lot of correspondence like this one, see a smaller-than-expected audience and finally figure out that while it has its hands in many businesses, electing a president isn’t one that We the People will accept.

Best wishes,

Joshua Holland is an editor and senior writer at AlterNet.