NY1 Suggests Tasini Collect $1 from Every NY Dem If He Wants to Debate

[Stephanie]

This is appalling.

NY1 is owned by Time Warner. Time Warner has contributed more than $100,000 to Hillary Clinton's campaign.

This guy Paulus is awfully flip for someone who's taken it upon himself to subvert democracy by shutting out candidates he doesn't care to hear from based on arbitrary financial standards devised by him. It's quite a let-them-eat-cake attitude. Next he will suggest Tasini do backflips down Fifth Avenue if he wants to qualify for the debates.

Here is the schedule of NY1 debates > http://appserv.pace.edu/execute/page.cfm?doc_id=21157

Notice anything missing?

http://www.silive.com/newsflash/metro/index.ssf?/base/politics-0/1155679159300060.xml&storylist=simetro

NY1 stands by decision not to host Democratic Senate debate
By BETH FOUHY
The Associated Press

NEW YORK (AP) — An all-news cable television station is standing by its decision not to host a debate between Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton and the anti-war activist challenging her in the state's Democratic primary.

NY1 has been criticized in recent weeks for refusing to include a Democratic Senate debate among its political offerings this summer. So far, NY1 has hosted debates involving the state's Democratic gubernatorial candidates and Republican Senate candidates. It will host a forum for the state's Democratic candidates for attorney general later this week.

But a debate between Clinton and Jonathan Tasini did not materialize because NY1 executives determined the cash-strapped Tasini cannot be considered a viable candidate.

Under rules set by NY1, candidates must meet three criteria to be invited to debate: They must have qualified for the ballot, have at least 5 percent support in the polls and have raised or spent at least $500,000 in their campaigns.

***

On Tuesday, the New York Post editorial page weighed in, saying NY1 should "cut Tasini a little slack."

"Traditionally, the test of seriousness in a statewide candidate in New York is successful completion of the grueling ballot access process. It ain't been easy, to put it mildly, but Tasini has made that grade," the paper wrote, adding that Clinton's stance on the Iraq war "could stand a little clarification."

But a senior vice president at NY1, Steve Paulus, said the station's criteria for debates were fair. He acknowledged the $500,000 threshold "seems like a lot of money" to many voters.

"There are 5.5 million registered Democrats in New York," Paulus said. "All Tasini would need is for each one to send him a dollar. Right now, with the money he's raised, he does not represent the party he claims to represent."

Here is the NY Post editorial:

GIVING HILLARY A PASS
http://www.nypost.com/seven/08152006/postopinion/editorial/giving_hillary_a_pass_editorials_.htm


Here is Michael Moore on pro-war Democrats:

It's All About Who You Sleep With ... a Cautionary Note from Michael Moore
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/message/index.php?id=197

Here is Tasini's site:

www.tasinifornewyork.org

[Stephanie]

1. Hello! Democracy is a joke to NY1.

[acmejack]

5. Contact NY1

http://www.ny1.com/ny1/ContactUs/index.jsp

[Stephanie]

8. or call them up

http://www.fair.org/index.php?page=2940

Action Alert

NY1 Silences Debate
Refuses to allow Clinton challenger Tasini in television primary debate

8/4/06

There is a heated debate among Democrats about the direction of the party, with centrist party stalwarts facing challenges from the left on issues like the Iraq War. But New York City voters will have a more difficult time seeing this debate play out, as New York City cable news channel NY1 (which is owned by Time Warner) has blocked the anti-war Democratic challenger Jonathan Tasini from a primary race debate against incumbent Sen. Hillary Clinton.

In a statement (Village Voice, 8/2/06), the channel said it had "established criteria to identify which candidates would be invited to participate" in the debates: poll at least 5 percent and have spent and/or raised $500,000.

In a recent Marist poll (7/19/06), Tasini stood at 13 percent, but his campaign has only raised $150,000.

By contrast, Tom Suozzi, seeking the Democratic nomination for governor of New York, is less popular with voters—at only 9 percent in a recent poll (NY1.com, 7/24/06)—but he was included in NY1's July 25 gubernatorial debate, having spent over $6 million on his campaign (Ithaca Journal, 6/26/06).

NY1's criteria reflect the undemocratic way in which media outlets measure the seriousness of a candidacy. By the station's rules, a candidate's popularity with the public is meaningless without hundreds of thousands of dollars of campaign funding. But without the exposure that debates provide, grassroots candidates running on a shoestring budget have little chance of communicating their positions to the majority of voters—people whom deep-pocketed rivals can reach easily through advertising campaigns and media coverage from mainstream media gatekeepers who have sanctioned those candidates as legitimate.

As writer/activist Barbara Ehrenreich said at a Tasini campaign forum protesting the exclusion (Village Voice, 8/2/06), "When you have to have half a million dollars to tell people what you stand for, then we're not talking about democracy anymore, we're talking about plutocracy."

The League of Women Voters, which for many years served as the main sponsor of national and local debates, requires only that a candidate has met the legal standard for getting on the ballot—in this case, 15,000 signatures. Tasini received 40,000 signatures, placing him well over that mark.

Tasini is Clinton's only primary opponent and has been outspoken in his opposition to the Iraq War, which Clinton has consistently supported. By shutting Tasini out of the debate, NY1 is limiting the discussion of important viewpoints and ultimately limiting voter choice.

ACTION: Call NY1 and demand that they remove their requirement that candidates raise or spend a large amount of money in order to participate in televised debates.

CONTACT:
Robert Hardt
NY1, Director of Politics
[e-mail]
212-379-3330

[LeftCoast]

2. Go Hillary!

:yourock:

[KamaAina]

3. Why doesn't Tasini show up at NY1 with the 500 grand

in Monopoly money? :-)

A good time would be had by all -- especially NY1's competitors, Chs. 2, 4, 7, etc.

[Stephanie]

7. Now it's up on Huff Post >

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2006/08/16/tv-station-refuses-to-hos_n_27394.html

[acmejack]

4. Send this to Randi

Lets see what we can do. I want to see Johnathan debate Hillary, I'll pay twenty bucks I don't have for it. Heck, he has to have raised some money.

[Stephanie]

6. yes please send to her