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WPXI Lies!
by George Kanakis
Monday, Oct. 28, 2002 at 11:26 AM
GKanakis@sover.net 412.600.1596 512 Hastings Street, Pittsburgh, PA 15206
WPXI lies about criteria for getting into their gubanatorial debate.
Michael Morrill, Green Party candidate for Governor, was denied participation in the debate sponsored by WPXI on Sunday, October 27 at the JCC.
Despite numerous contacts with WPXI for weeks before the debate, they NEVER gave any criteria for getting into this debate. They simply stated that they were only including the two major party candidates. However, at the beginning of the debate, David Johnson made a prepared statement saying that they only included candidates who polled above 10%. Than later, a spokesperson for the station said that they were only including candidates who polled above 5%. So in essence, they never even made a decision what percentage would be required for participation. During their 11pm newscast, the anchor again made a statement that WPXI's decision was based soley on polling. This was never comunicated to anyone either in the local Green Party, or with the Morrill Campaign, despite numerous attempts to contact WPXI.
Michael had a very brief
opportunity to address the audience before the debate. He was applauded at
the end of his comments. The police then escorted him out of the building.
Several people got up and interrupted during the course of the debate before
also being escorted out. Outside we had opportunities to talk to the media.
Here is the media coverage I saw this evening. WPXI began by giving Michael
about 10-15 seconds to talk, and he sounded good. They reported it as a
"protest" but did not really mention the interruptions. They then proceeded
to lie once again about supposedly setting criteria for inclusion. KDKA also
gave Mike a few seconds to talk, and showed lots of footage of us outside.
Only caught the very tail end of WTAE, so don't have much to report there. I
hope the papers will have more complete coverage.
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