Saturday, October 27, 2007

Presidential Debate to Air October 30th – But No Gravel

The 8th Democratic presidential debate is just days away. It will be held in Philadelphia on the campus of Drexel University on Tuesday October 30th at 9 PM to 11 PM, EDT (so that’s 8 PM to 10 PM here in Texas).

It promises to be a real barnburner because the Iran issues that the Bush regime raised most recently have yet to be really debated. Go and take a look at the MSNBC website where the announcement and analysis can be found.

Yep, the seven Democratic candidates will meet again to . . .wait . . . yes, according to the MSNBC article the Democrats have seven candidates. Are there not eight?

Last I heard there were eight Democratic presidential candidates. Eight fine candidates.

If you do a search on the page for Mike Gravel, it highlights a graphic at the bottom of the page, but Gravel is not mentioned in the text of the article at all. So I had to find out and this is what I found:

NBC Bars Sen. Mike Gravel From Democratic Debate
In campaign news, former Senator Mike Gravel is protesting a decision by NBC News to bar him from next Tuesday's debate at Drexel University in Philadelphia. NBC said it made the decision in part because Gravel hadn't raised over one million dollars. Gravel said "The fact that NBC is owned by General Electric, one of the world's leading military contractors, is frightening and certainly smacks of censorship directed at the most outspoken critic of the influence that the military-industrial complex holds over this great nation."

That is vintage Gravel. Of course General Electric owns NBC and is itself a company that has profited from the Iraqi Civil War. It would take a bully like GE to dictate to the American people who they will and will not be able to see in the debate.

They bring good things to life, you know.

But wait, there’s more.

Mike Gravel has a huge fan in Nashua hedge fund manager Gregory Chase, who has by himself, spent $100,000 for Gravel’s presidency. He “has sent brochures to thousands of Nashua households, has printed "Gravel '08" yard signs and bumper stickers and is working on a letter to New Hampshire residents outlining Gravel's position on tax reform.”

Through ads that he has placed, he has also offered NBC $1,000,000 if they will allow Gravel to participate in the debate. Yes, that’s a one followed by 6 zeros, a million smackeroos.

Why does he do this? He told this to the Concord Monitor:

“This is a guy with real ideas who's got a communications problem. And I can help.”
But NBC has not answered his ads. But going on how they number the presidential candidates in this article, I think the answer is a big fat no.

If you look at the Monitor’s story, it appears that Chase has a You Tube video so I checked and lo and behold there it was. Chase explaining all about why he supports Gravel, what he is doing for him, and reading the letters that he FedExed to NBC executives, Drexel U., and Howard Dean. [Strong suggestion, watch until the end].



So maybe, just maybe, we haven’t seen the end of this. NBC is going to start to look bad if it is perceived that they are trying to be “The Decider”. We know how unpopular Deciders can be, especially when they have all the power and all the money.

You can be part of the equation. There is an online petition to sign demanding that they let Mike Gravel participate in the debate. Sign it HERE

These are the email addresses of NBC executives and others. Let them know what you think of their role as The Decider.

chuck.todd@nbcuni.com, viewerservices@msnbc.com, directors@corporate.ge.com, ombudsperson@corporate.ge.com, jeff.zucker@nbcuni.com, lynn.calpeter@nbcuni.com, steve.capus@nbcuni.com

Tell the Democratic Party that we can’t let corporations effectively decide for us who should run for president:

http://www.democrats.org/page/s/contact

2 comments:

Bay Area Houston said...

Personally I would like to see extended debates between Hillary, Obama, and Edwards.

And then another debate with the other 5 together.

Unfortunately, no one would watch the other 5. No ratings. Therefore no TV. And I wouldnt watch them either so it really makes me no nevermind.

The other 5 candidates are there to push issues. They are not running to win. If they are, they are delusional.

DavidFL10 said...

Mike Gravel is in Philadelphia at the World Café Live (3025 Walnut St.) preparing to host an alternate Democratic Debate. Internet viewers at www.gravel2008.us/LIVEDEBATE will watch the debate with Mike and hear his remarks. He will take questions from the audience and via email at PhillyDebate@gravel2008.us until midnight.

We can’t stop the corporate censorship by MSNBC to the masses, but we on the internet have the power to let the American people learn about the candidates—even the ones General Electric wants to silence.