FNC and the South Carolina debate…
The AP has a story on FNC’s participation in the South Carolina debate…(via TVNewser)
Fox News will have a say in deciding which Republican presidential candidates participate in next month’s debate in South Carolina.
State Party chairman Katon Dawson and a spokesman for the news channel said Thursday that they had agreed on a criteria, including polling numbers, for choosing which of the 10 GOP candidates will take part in the May 15 debate.
‘’We understand there’s not room for everybody on a nationwide political stage for a Republican debate,'’ Dawson said.
Marty Ryan, executive producer of political programming for Fox News Channel, said the polling criteria would ensure ‘’that serious candidates were taking part in our debate.'’
UPDATE: The use of polling is not unusual for debates. The Commission on Presidential Debates has used polling as well for debate criteria.
The CPD’s third criterion requires that the candidate have a level of support of at least 15% (fifteen percent) of the national electorate as determined by five selected national public opinion polling organizations, using the average of those organizations’ most recent publicly reported results at the time of the determination.
This is foolish. How are lesser known candidates supposed to increase their poll numbers from the beginning if they’re not allowed to debate? At this point, the poll numbers are a direct reflection of a candidates money and media attention. I’m tired of both picking our candidates.
Comment by The Voice of Reason — April 27, 2007 @ 10:51 am