October 12, 2007

Following Tuesday's Republican presidential debate in Dearborn, Michigan, broadcast by NBC through its cable stations MSNBC and CNBC, GOP presidential candidate Alan Keyes issued a statement decrying the media giant's control of the event.

Keyes, who was excluded from the debate, said, "I've learned that NBC pulled the strings of the political choices that were made in putting together the debate, including who was allowed to participate. The network didn't just broadcast the result, it determined the result. That's not acceptable in our constitutional republic."

"Such heavy-handed control of the political process by the media doesn't fall under the rubric of freedom of the press," added Keyes. "If you let the media set the agenda, then you lose. This is what is destroying our political process — the dictatorship of the media."

Participating in the debate were nine GOP presidential hopefuls, including recently-announced Fred Thompson. Keyes, who filed Sept. 14, just nine days after Thompson, was barred on the grounds that he failed to announce by Sept. 11, the day the Secretary of State certified candidates for automatic inclusion on the state ballot.

Keyes can still qualify as a candidate by petition until Oct. 23, and thus he should have been allowed to participate in the debate, he said, "so voters would have a chance to hear the kind of arguments I feel need to be articulated, but are not being raised."

"Not one of the other candidates, for example, made the connection between moral principle and economic interests," said Keyes, "and the two are inseparable. If I had been there, the logic of that connection would have been made."

The decision to exclude the former Reagan administration diplomat from the debate was defended by the Michigan GOP on the grounds that NBC wanted to include only those recommended by the party for ballot access on the Secretary of State's list.

Bill Nowling, spokesman for the party, said prior to the debate: "NBC News, which is producing the debate and controls who is invited and who is not, decided to limit the event to those candidates whose names have been submitted to the Secretary of State."

Responded Keyes, who believes his name should have been on the Secretary of State's list, since "by law the list was meant to include potential presidential candidates," not just those who announced by Sept. 11: "Allowing NBC to have ultimate control of the event made the debate a sham."

"The media already act as the gatekeepers of our political system, depriving citizens of vital information and choice. Political parties shouldn't willingly go along. That makes them complicit in the destruction of our republic."

At this point, Keyes campaign representatives are focusing their attention on gathering petition signatures to get the former ambassador on the Michigan primary ballot by the Oct. 23 deadline. Supporters must gather at least 11,569 signatures for Keyes to qualify. The petition drive is being spearheaded by AmericasRevival.com.

To date, Keyes has been accepted by California and Utah for inclusion in those states' presidential primaries. The Michigan presidential primary is slated for Jan. 15, 2008.

In the Reagan administration, Keyes served as Assistant Secretary of State for International Organizations and was involved in national security, counter-terrorism, and development of foreign policy.

Commenting on the debate, Keyes said he would have challenged the initial premise of the debate, stated by the first questioner, CNBC moderator Maria Bartiromo, that "the economy is America's greatest strength." Our country's "greatest strength," he said, "is our people's faith in God — and our allegiance to the principle that our rights come from God and must be exercised with respect for His authority."

"That's why, in the midst of the greatest economic depression in history, we had the strength — during World War II — to defend liberty against the depravity of Nazism," he said.