Dennis Kucinich has filed an emergency complaint with the FCC after ABC News excluded him and Mike Gravel from Saturday’s debates. ABC is owned by Walt Disney Co., which has contributed money to all four candidates allowed to participate. The complaint states that the televised event “is not a true presidential primary debate without including all credible candidates, but instead is effectively an endorsement of the candidates selected by ABC.” The filing also notes that ABC “is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Walt Disney, Co., whose executives have contributed heavily to other Democratic presidential primary candidates, including Senators Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama, former Senator John Edwards, and Governor Bill Richardson.”

ABC is also violating equal-time provisions by keeping Kucinich out of the “debates” (There is no “debate” when there is no disagreement amongst the candidates). The Federal Communications Act states that the media does not have the right to set their own rules for qualification. Kucinich claimed that the network was “violating its obligation to operate in the public interest” and that “ABC should not be the first primary”. Kucinich urged ABC to reverse its decision or face possible FCC action.

ABC says that the candidates left out of the event failed to meet benchmarks made prior to the Iowa caucus, but did not address the fact that such private benchmarks in a public debate are illegal. Spokeswoman Cathie Levine argued that Kucinich did not complain about the rules ahead of time.

Amongst the criteria set by ABC for inclusion in Saturday night’s event was at least a fourth-place showing in Thursday’s Iowa caucuses. Kucinich effectively by-passed the caucuses after being excluded from two earlier debates and Party-sponsored functions by the Iowa Democratic Party as well as political and institutional interests. Instead of wasting his time on a rigged game, Kucinich has been focusing heavily on New Hampshire instead. However, ABC is now sabotaging his chances in that state by using the results of the corrupted Iowa caucuses as justification.

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