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NV Judge to NBC: Let Kucinich Participate or the Debate is Cancelled |
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First, MSNBC decided to exclude democratic candidate Dennis Kucinich from Tuesday’s debate. Then, this morning, Kucinich sued MSNBC, demanding to be included in the debate under provisions of the Federal Communications Act.
From the lawsuit:
The exclusion of Kucinich undermines the purpose of the Federal Communications Act and is a blatant violation of the Act because of the media’s obligation to operate in the public interest. NBC revised it’s criteria to specifically exclude the diverse and anti-war voice of Kucinich and his grassroots supporters.
And:
Although NBC would prefer to only report on easily described and well-known candidates, the proper enforcement of the Federal Communications Act ensures American voters that they will have the ability to vote for candidates with varied and new ideas and policies.
We’ve just received word that a Nevada judge has threatened to file an injunction, stopping the debate, if Kucinich is not allowed to participate.
The judge called it a matter of fairness and said Nevada voters will benefit if they hear from more than just Hillary Rodham Clinton, Barack Obama and John Edwards.
Of course MSNBC (80% owned by General Electric) doesn’t want Kucinich to be in the debate. General Electric is a nuclear powerhouse and Dennis Kucinich has been an enemy of nuclear power for years.
Fucking yeah.
Okay, but aren’t there a dozen or more other candidates that no one’s heard of, like Dal LaMagna, who’d also have to be there? Doesn’t a line have to be drawn somewhere?
I agree that we need some precise criteria, but Kucinich is a nationally known figure, a sitting Congressman, and a candidate that some support.
I mean, maybe anybody who’s on the ballot should be invited to the debate. What’s best for our democracy?
Agreed. If there are rules to get into the debates (which I’m fine with), they need to be laid out clearly and well in advance.
The line was drawn at a top FOUR polling finish…that is until Kucinich polled in the top four. They then REDREW the line to include the top THREE. Either way it’s spun, they aim to exclude Kucinich. The refuse to risk him bringing up ANYTHING about nuclear power or the nuclear warheads their parent company CONTINUES to make. Or the war dependent rockets and jet parts they make? Or the medical equipment they sell at ridiculous prices in our profitable and exclusive healthcare system?
That is VERY interesting, Ghettolectual. Do you have any links to something that goes over these original rules or shows them changing?
I will search for print. DK told me this himself and he’s given me no reason to doubt him. But WILL look for print for you.
Ok Jason I found something for you bit I’m on my iPod touch right now and I don’t know how to cut and paste with. I’ll have to wait until I get to work in a few hours. Or you can click on my name to go to my facebook site where I’ve posted it. Scroll down the story about the Nevada debate fight.
Don’t stop at nuclear! GE has big federal contracts for rockets and jet replacement parts, and their medical systems need a for-profit system that’s heavily subsidized by the tax-payer.
Jeez, Kucinich would be bad for their business all around. He might even make them clean up those toxic waste dumps they keep leaving around.
Seriously, GE is a $360 billion company. What percentage of that do you think comes from nuclear power?
From their own annual report:
“coal gasification and the next-generation nuclear boiling water reactor…could generate $10%u2013$20 billion of orders over the next 10 years.”
So coal gasification AND nuclear will bring in about $1-2 billion a year, or about 0.6% of their revenue. Or if you want to look at it another way, GE Nuclear employs 2500 or about 0.78% of their total work force. Either way you look at it, I wouldn’t say a very large (or even a small) part of GE’s business is nuclear.
OK, now add in the money they make from selling rockets to the military, the money they make selling replacement parts to the airforce, and the money they make selling medical equipment at huge markups, thanks to federal subsidy of the for-profit medical industry.
They make about $2 billion on the nuke tech, another $2.5 billion annually from military contracts, $2.2 billion in tax breaks (they pay about a 11.5% tax rate, less than any of us here I’m sure since social security alone is 13%).
Of course, $7 billion a year doesn’t sound like a lot. Except, their annual profits are only $20 billion.
Now you’re talking about %30 of GE’s profit margin, before considering the effect of government meddling in inflating the cost of medical equipment and services.
…not to mention that whether or not Kucinich is in the debate, it will not change the fact that he has no chance of being elected…so even if you assume that GE can unilaterally pull strings at NBC like that, why would GE consider him enough of a threat to actually care if he is in the debate or not?
Because Kucinich has shifted the debate towards the Left and refocused it when the other candidates have made it more of a farce than it already is. He is a necessary presence on the stage.
True DK isn’t viable but GE is scared to give him a forum to bring up nuclear debate in the state of Nevada ESPECIALLY since that is where a lot of the nuclear manufacturing takes place.
http://www.tvweek.com/news/2008/01/contested_debate_turns_into_ma.php
Excellent, thanks!
Do your research stuff? Global Nuclear Fuel, a joint venture of GE, Toshiba and Hitachi. This reduces GE income even more. Nuclear manufacturing in Nevada? The JV is headquartered in NC. That’s where the fuel in manufactured. Maybe you got NV vs. NC mixed up. Easy mistake for a moron.
http://www.ge-energy.com/prod_serv/products/nuclear_energy/en/download s/nuclear_business.pdf
Correction (and thank you): not manufacturing but disposal and testing. And if you need to call names to make your point, you sir, are the moron. Or just a complete ass. State your correction and move on. If we were face to face in discussion, you would have thought twice about your words. Discussion Mr. Average Joe, not confrontation. To hide behind anonymity to throw barbs is moronic, truly asinine.
Agreed. No name calling please. It helps nobody’s case.