NBC disinvites Kucinich from debate

Rep. Dennis Kucinich (D-Ohio) is criticizing NBC for disinviting him from an upcoming Nevada presidential debate, and says he is considering legal action.

NBC had invited the long-shot candidate on Jan. 9 but rescinded its decision Friday morning, when NBC Political Director Chuck Todd informed the Kucinich camp that the network was “redoing” its participation criteria, according to the campaign.

{mosads}The lawmaker had qualified for the debate by coming in fourth in a national poll with 3 percent.

However, NBC changed its criteria to focus the debate on the three candidates with a realistic shot of winning the nomination — Sens. Hillary Rodham Clinton (N.Y.), Barack Obama (Ill.) and former Sen. John Edwards (N.C.).

Kucinich, who was also excluded from an ABC debate, is now considering legal action against NBC. In a statement, the campaign cited “the blatant disregard of the public interest in silencing public debate that dissents with the views of NBC, its parent company, GE, and all of the military contractors and their candidate-funding corporate interests.”

“When ‘big media’ exert their unbridled control over what Americans can see, hear, and read, then the Constitutional power and right of the citizens to vote is being vetoed by multi-billion-[dollar] corporations that want the votes to go their way,” the campaign said.