Outsiders looking in
Third-party candidates say they were unfairly excluded from the Boxer-Fiorina debate
By Jake Armstrong 10/07/2010
Political activists of all stripes shouted their views from the sun-drenched sidewalk outside KPCC’s Pasadena studios during last week’s debate between US Sen. Barbara Boxer and challenger Carly Fiorina.
But it was the limited number of ideologies allowed in the door — and on millions of voters’ radios — that rankled Duane Roberts and other third-party candidates who say the station unjustly excluded them from the debate.
“The voters should be the ones making the decision whether the candidates are viable or not,” said Roberts, the Green Party’s US Senate candidate who obtained 150 signatures to get on the ballot.
Marsha Feinland, the Peace and Freedom Party’s US Senate contender who appears on the ballot with Roberts and two other third-party candidates, said she suspected third-party candidates were excluded from the debate because of corporate connections between the nonprofit radio station’s board of directors, some of whom are wealthy corporate media investors, and the corporations supporting the major-party candidates. “I don’t think they want to hear what we have to say. Politics as usual is OK for some people,” Feinland said.
Craig Curtis, KPCC’s program director, said the station’s debate organizers scanned recent polls to see how much support third-party candidates were picking up but found only Boxer and Fiorina’s poll numbers showed they had significant support. “We just surveyed the landscape quickly and realized none of the candidates have moved beyond single digits,” he said, adding that third-party candidates are typically profiled on the station outside of the debate format. “This debate is certainly not the sum total of our coverage of the election.”
A California Public Policy Institute poll released the day of the debate showed Boxer with 42 percent support and Fiorina trailing with 35 percent, with 17 percent still undecided.
However, the poll also showed that only 54 percent of voters surveyed said they were satisfied with the candidates in the US Senate race. Roberts said voters are craving another perspective that is not getting airtime. For example, in the debate Fiorina said increased competition between insurers was necessary to make coverage more affordable, while Boxer said she’d back efforts to revive a public option — both echoing party lines.
But Roberts said he would have argued for a single-payer system, a politically unpopular proposal form of universal health care that polling suggests a slight majority of the public supports.
He’s also calling for immediate amnesty for illegal immigrants, a position the major party candidates couldn’t be further from. “That’s not an issue either Fiorina or Boxer are going to touch in their campaigns,” he said.
DIGG | del.icio.us | REDDIT
Other Stories by Jake Armstrong
Related Articles
Comments
Here's yet another example of tyranny employed by America's Capitalist Political Party (and its two ranks of fake-opposition).
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/blogs/nov0...
This is where the "Special-Chosen" candidates summarily JAIL all other contenders who would attempt even just observing.
DanD
posted by DanD on 10/13/10 @ 08:21 a.m.
Catch 22.
"Craig Curtis, KPCC’s program director, said the station’s debate organizers scanned recent polls to see how much support third-party candidates were picking up but found only Boxer and Fiorina’s poll numbers showed they had significant support."
Now, who functionally controls the "significant" polls whose numbers mostly went to Boxer and Fiorina? Why, those corporations that mostly support Boxer and Fiorina. And why can't third-party candidates qualify? Well, because they never get the exposure of being included in any such exclusively-polled debates where these pollsters inordinately focus their attention.
Other polls have related that as much as 75 percent of America's taxpayers oppose the Iraq and Afghanistan wars. Yet, neither Boxer nor Fiorina are fundamentally anti-war. Even so, KPPC summarily excludes any and all third party, anti-war candidates, because they popularly poll so low.
So again, why? Well, in this instance at least, mostly because the current management at KPPC is also a corporate whore.
DanD