Dennis Kucinich excluded from the NBC debate Tuesday — and the Recount

The NBC Debate —

NBC has decided, after earlier inviting him to participate, to change their own rules and exclude Dennis Kucinich from yet another major debate. I think every American should be angry about it: NBC Rewrites its Own Rules to Prevent America from Hearing Kucinich.

I tried to find a contact page so I could complain to NBC about this decision. At first I couldn’t find one, or a direct email address for the Political Director, Chuck Todd, on their website, but I did find a place to enter a question for the candidates who are allowed to participate in Tuesday’s debate. I entered this question:

“How do each of the candidates who’ve been allowed to participate in this debate feel about the fact that some valid candidates, such as Dennis Kucinich, were excluded this early in the race by both ABC and NBC, and do you think that skews the information available to American voters regarding their choices? Do you consider this fair, and what specific changes would you make as far as campaign and election reform, and guaranteeing fair and balanced media coverage of national elections, if you become President?”

But when I attempted to submit it, I got a message that there was a server error. So, unless one of those “big” three candidates who are lucky enough to get mainstream media coverage reads this blog, they’re not likely to answer my question. But I invite any candidate in either party who is running for President to answer my question here. Or, for that matter, I invite NBC to explain themselves, right here. You might as well, NBC, because I don’t plan to watch your debate.

As news sources, I now conclude that NBC and ABC, as well as Gannett, which owns the Des Moines Register (which shut Kucinich out of the PBS debate held in Iowa before the caucus) all pretty much suck.

For anyone who would like to write NBC and tell them what you think of this decision, here’s their Contact Page.

If you haven’t yet contacted ABC about their earlier exclusion of Dennis Kucinich from their most recent debate, here’s the web page to do that: Contact ABC News

It appears that the only way Americans will continue to hear Dennis Kucinich’s message, is for it to spread via word of mouth and the internet. So let’s get with it.

Don’t let mainstream media decide who our next President will be. Vote for the Real Democrat. Who is he? Watch the videos linked below and find out:

Who is Dennis Kucinich?

Dennis Kucinich - The Real Democrat

The Recount —

Kucinich has asked for New Hampshire recount in the interest of election integrity.

New Hampshire has decided to conduct a hand recount. But because he requested it, Dennis Kucinich has to pay for the recount. I wonder, should he have to? Should any candidate even need to request a recount, when it was already confirmed, after voters complained, that some of the Ron Paul votes weren’t counted, and the New Hampshire district where that occurred admitted to the miscount? Shouldn’t a recount in that case be automatic? On the other hand, an article at BlackBoxVoting.org expresses concern that a recount may wind up being a trap.

I wonder what people in other countries think when they read news like this about our elections, at the same time our government is always insisting that other countries must be more like us by exercising democracy with fair elections. What hypocrites we must appear, when we can’t even conduct an election of our own without unbalanced reporting, votes not counted, candidates left off ballots, recounts, and candidates shut out of televised debates. What really happened to our democracy? Why isn’t the process of electing a President more seamless and uniform by now? Why is it so confusing to the voter? I sometimes wonder if we ever had a democracy, and I hope we can clean up this mess and leave a democracy to the next generation. Or is democracy supposed to be messy like this?

This article was updated, added to, and edited on 01-12-2008.