Seen on the newswire:
Democratic presidential candidate Dennis Kucinich filed a complaint with the FCC on Friday after ABC News excluded him, fellow Democrat Mike Gravel and Republican Duncan Hunter from its prime-time debates on Saturday.
Kucinich argued that ABC is violating equal-time provisions by keeping him out of the debate and noted that ABC’s parent Walt Disney Co. had contributed to campaigns involving the four Democrats who were invited.[...]
The network set rules to narrow the field. Candidates had to meet at least one of three criteria: place first through fourth in Iowa, poll 5 percent or higher in one of the last four major New Hampshire surveys, or poll 5 percent or higher in one of the last four major national surveys.
While I appreciate the argument raised by Kucinich…you have to ask yourself: can’t an argument be made that “equal time” shouldn’t necessarily apply to nonviable candidates, assuming (of course) an adequately broad definition of “viable”?
Given that the primary campaign has already been underway for about a year, and yet Kucinich barely registers in the polls…I’d have to say he’s not viable under any definition.