CITIZENS RALLY AT LOCAL ABC AFFILIATE TO SUPPORT FREE SPEECH AND DEMOCRACY : AZ IMC

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CITIZENS RALLY AT LOCAL ABC AFFILIATE TO SUPPORT FREE SPEECH AND DEMOCRACY
by Kucinich for President - Arizona Thursday, Dec. 11, 2003 at 1:13 PM
office@az4kucinich.org 480-222-3140

“We are going to Rock the Vote by Rocking the Boat – The Media is NOT going to shut us out!”

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CITIZENS RALLY AT LOCAL ABC AFFILIATE TO SUPPORT FREE SPEECH AND DEMOCRACY

Several dozen Kucinich supporters and other concerned citizens gathered outside the Phoenix ABC affiliate (KNXV-TV) Thursday evening to raise community awareness of ABC's withdrawal of their embed reporter within the Kucinich campaign and their cancellation of an upcoming one-hour interview with Dennis. (ABC has reportedly also pulled its reporters from covering the presidential campaigns of Rev. Al Sharpton and Ambassador Carol Mosley-Braun.)

Station Manager, John Culliton, came out and gave the group the opportunity to ask him for his comment on the situation. Since Mr. Culliton had not watched the debate, the supporters explained that during the debate on Tuesday evening, Dennis Kucinich had challenged Ted Koppel by telling him that American voters would rather hear about the issues than about endorsements, money and the polls! And then Dennis went on to tell him that even though his candidacy might be "inconvenient", he wasn't going to withdraw. The following day, ABC withdrew their embed reporter in the Kucinich campaign and today ABC cancelled a one-hour Kucinich interview with an affiliate station in Iowa. The group meeting with Culliton, asked if he didn't think this was coincidental?

The group explained to Mr. Culliton that no candidates should be marginalized and none should be dismissed since not one vote had yet been cast! (Culliton was also reminded that Kucinich, Sharpton, and Mosley-Braun were currently polling close to where Bill Clinton was polling at this relative point in his first run for the presidency.)

Culliton agreed that this was a basic question of democracy. He assured the group that he would contact "national" ABC, but could not guarantee that he would get a quick reply. He did assure the group that he would email State Director, Kevin Spidel, on Friday and give him an update. He also agreed to meet with representatives of the group in the near future to discuss media-related issues and left open the possibility for a future local feature piece on the issue.

WHAT YOU CAN DO:

To express concerns to ABC, contact the following:

ABC Audience Response line at 818-460-7477. Press 4 to leave a message.
ABC News Washington DC Bureau at 202-222-7777, fax 202-222-7684
ABC News Political Director Mark Halperin at 212-456-4545, fax 212-456-2795, email mark.halperin@abc.com
ABC News President David Westin at 212-456-6200, fax 212-456-4292
ABC President Alex Wallau at 818-460-5500, fax 212-456-2795, email alex.wallau@abc.com

You can write letters to:

ABC News
47 W 66th St
New York, NY 10023-6290