From: Adrian Tymes (wingcat@pacbell.net)
Date: Mon Apr 17 2000 - 12:30:18 MDT
Lee Daniel Crocker wrote:
> Jesus, this is frustrating. What do you think we've been doing for
> 20 years? Do you think we haven't been trying like hell to be
> _allowed_ in the debates? Do you think we haven't been sending
> releases to the press every week for years? Do you think we haven't
> been using paper, the web, and every other medium available to get
> the message out?
>From personal experience? No. Or rather, yes, but ineffectively
enough that it might as well be no, which is part of the problem, and I
have seen how these media are used. See below.
> It doesn't matter that nearly every radio talk show host in the
> country hs called or including the LP in debates. It doesn't matter
> that most newspapers have as well. It doesn't matter that the
> league of women voters (who used to sponsor the big debate) called
> for inclusion. The Ds & Rs took over the process and created the
> "non-partisan" commission on debates specifically for the partisan
> purpose of keeping out the LP, and as long as the television network
> media let them get away with it, it will work.
It sounds like the ones you need to work on here aren't the D/Rs, but
the television networks themselves. For instance, if you can document
how non-D/R candidates are systematically barred (and you probably can),
*especially* if you can give it the stench of illegality (this might be
a bit more difficult), it might make for a good 60 Minutes story. If
the D/Rs won't acknowledge your existence, create controversy - which
the media *will* lap up - until they do. (Take as an example Perot's
'92 shot, which started in basically your situation - with more money,
perhaps, but probably not with as much political experience - and got on
the public radar.) Either way, you get the message that you exist into
the public consciousness.
Examine the potential gain in publicity versus cost for each medium, and
each use of the medium. You have limited resources, so concentrate your
resources on the high-yield media. At least, that would seem to be one
way out...
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